40 Pioneer Gathering (2/2)

18 people.

I saw some people getting agitated. I undid the sound barrier to hear what they were saying.

”””EIGHTEE-*mute*””” Okay, bad decision, mute everything again.

[The causes of death for the deceased Pioneers were either bad luck, bad decisions, or both. We are happy that all of you have taken the opposite paths, allowing to survive until now. There is no need to mourn the fallen too deeply, because they had signed up for this task, and picked their destination universes on their own.]

'And we also don't have to feel sad because they're strangers. Tips for happier life right there, by me.' I added in my heart.

[We're sure that after meeting with each other, all of you are eager to test your skills among your peers, and that's why the Second Event, Combat Tournament, will be held soon.]

A screen appeared at the center of the room, showing what I thought was the tournament bracket.

[You will still get a reward even if you lose. However, the further you are in the tournament, the better the reward it will give you.]

[The event will start in 10 minutes. Any Items, Equipment, and Skills are allowed. The winning condition is when the enemy Pioneer surrenders, falls unconscious or the dies. We will reset every Pioneer's condition after the fight is over. Please prepare yourselves.]

And the announcement ended.

”… Well, that just happened.” I summarized what the System announced to Bara. ”What do you think? Are you scared?” I asked.

She shook her head negatively. ”Nope. We just have to do our best. Besides, didn't Master say that meeting with Yukari-san is scarier than anything in the world?”

”Haha, yeah, you're right. There's nothing scarier than that, and this is probably much easier than a Danmaku game.” I smiled.

I looked at the tournament bracket. It seemed like there were 2 separate groups, group A and group B, with 9 people each. Although I said 9, only 8 of those people will fight progressively against each other until there's only 1 left, and then that 1 guy will fight the one that has been sitting out this entire time, it's like, you need to defeat that one guy to go the grand final.

I'm in the group A and I start at the bottom, so this is gonna be fun.

I took out both my swords and strapped them both to my left hip.

Bara also started wearing her combat gloves.

”It looks like the fight's gonna be 2-on-2, we're gonna use this strategy.” I took out an item to show her.

”Oh, that? Then, I'll do my best!”

”Yup, please do your best so that we can gang up on them.”

After waiting for a while, the Combat Tournament started.

-Fight 1-​

We were teleported into an empty white room, and I could see our opponents on the opposite side of the room.

Our opponents were a Lv.50's guy and Lv.25 girl. The girl had a red ponytail and a sheathed sword hanging on her hip. Her clothing was similar to a school uniform but in a fantasy setting. You can totally see how much I gave a fuck about the dude just because he's a dude… And the girl was pretty cute too.

*poke* *poke*

Bara wordlessly poked my side with an accusatory glare.

”I'm only assessing how powerful our opponent are, I don't know the reason why you're poking me, Bara.” I used my most casual tone while saying those words, I also smiled.

But she didn't believe me and then turned to the girl.

She immediately enhanced her whole body, pouring more mana into her fists.

'Welp, that girl's gonna get punched in the face now because of me. R.I.P.'

[Attention Fighters]

Floating words appeared between us and our opponents.

”Master, I can see the words.” Bara said.

I nodded to let her know I heard her.

[The fight will start in 5 seconds]

”They are too far for me to use it, let's close in, use me as cover.” I said.

[4]

”Yes!” Bara answered in high spirits.

[3]

Our opponents drew their swords.

[2]

I applied enhancement to my whole body.

[1]

I prepared the item in my hand.

[Start]

I immediately skated toward them using Vector Change to push me forward. I could sense Bara following from behind.

The guy shot lightning from his sword at me.

Counter Armor.

The lightning bounced off after it hit me.

They were surprised.

Just a little more.

Now it was the girl's turn to shoot fire from her sword.

It bounced off me again.

Now!

Mimicry String!

The string connected to the guy.

I stopped, he also stopped.

Bara ran past me.

The girl was confused when the guy stopped moving.

Bara threw a punch.

The girl blocked her punches but still got sent flying.

Bara chased after her.

And now, it was just the two of us.

”Hello, how is your day?” I greeted him while muting the fighting noises that were happening behind him.

”Kuh! What did you do to me?! I can't move!” he tried to move, but of course he couldn't because I was stronger.

”So rude, don't you know that when someone greets you, you should greet them back?” I commented. Give me a hand fan and I'd be Yukari.

”Answer me!!” he shouted. I could see his companion flying again in the background.

I wiggled my finger. ”Non non, if you want answers you should fix your attitude.” I smiled. What is this feeling? I didn't know overpowering someone could feel this good, no wonder Yukari likes acting like this.

”Dammit! Dammit!!” he continued to struggle. His companion went flying again in the background. ”Eat this!!” His body started giving out a glow and electricity went rampant around him. The string conducted the electricity to me but I stopped it before it reached me.

I could see Bara waving at me from behind him.

'... I don't see any blood on her clothes, that mean the girl is just unconscious right? ...right?' I thought.

I started walking toward him, he also start walking toward me.

”What?!” he exclaimed.

We both moved closer to each other.

I raised my palm, he mirrored me.

Our palms touched.

Now I could control how his blood moved. I made the blood in his heart go crazy, his heart exploded.

[Winner: Arah & Bara]

”Great.” I said in relief.

-Fight 2-​

Hawkman and Hawkwoman doing a pose.

Hawkman flew into the sky, Hawkwoman flew from below.

Arah teleported behind Hawkman.

Arah and Hawkman divebombed into the ground.

Hawkman yelled a surrender just a millimeter before hitting the ground.

We won.

-Fight 3-​

A Loli and a teddy bear monster.

Bara ordered me to stay put and started fighting the teddy bear.

I supported her fight using Telekinesis in a subtle manner.

…I see, she's wearing white lace underwear…

We won!!

…Ouch, how did she know?!

-Fight 4-​

A guy and his dragon girl.

We attacked, the dragon girl defended.

We used magic, the dragon girl deflected.

The dragon girl used magic, Bara dodged, and I deflected it back.

The dude is just a Mana Tank for the dragon girl.

The dragon girl has a tight defense but all we needed was just one shot.

And we eventually did it.

One lucky ricocheted earth bullet from me.

He started bleeding, the dragon girl flinched, she showed an opening, and I took it.

We won.

-Fight 5-​

A ninja and a talking samurai sword.

He disappeared from our vision.

We start sweeping the area with a fire storm and lasers.

We hit him.

We won.

-Fight 6 (Grand Final)-​

This guy actually has a fucking Gundam.

He shot his beam.

I deflected it back at the Gundam's cockpit.

It hit.

It was destroyed.

We won.

”…It's anticlimactic.” Bara commented.

I nodded in agreement.

[Congratulation to the Tournament Champion]

[Victory Reward: 300,000 AP, 300,000 IP, a Skill Seed]

[Skill Seed: A seed containing a skill that has the potential to grow into the greatest skill in the System Skill Catalogue]

[Account Upgraded from 'Pioneer' to 'Senior Pioneer']

[We hope that all of you still survive by the time your Second Anniversary arrives]

[Good Luck]

After the message ended, just like the first time we arrived, in the blink of an eye both of us arrived back in our house.

'It's super anticlimactic!! So tired, mentally tired.' I thought.

”Master~ I'm tired~ carry me to bed~.” Bara lazily clung to me, SO CUTE!!

”Leave it to me!!” I carried her to the upper floor with full vigor.

But in the end, we both immediately fell asleep in the same futon because of how tired we were at that time.

The Missing Spring: Prologue

-3rd Person POV-​

A certain ghost princess passed through a certain house door in Muenzuka.

”Excuse me~” she leisurely floated inside the house.

Because the fox was tending her duties and the cat was trying to gather her own subordinates, the house only had one occupant, the boundary woman.

”Yukari, are you sleeping?” The ghost princess lightly called the boundary woman's name.

The boundary woman softly grunted in her bed. She was already aware of her presence when she invaded her home.

”Thank goodness, truthfully, I'd like to request something from you…”

The boundary woman softly grunted for her to continue.

”Thank you, then can you weaken the boundary between life and death?”

The boundary woman didn't grunt.

She was awake.

She had completely woken up after hearing her request.

She immediately calculated what she would do with it.

And she concluded that she would fail at what she was doing.

But because she was her friend.

The boundary woman rustled an arm out of her blanket and pointed it upward.

Because she was the only one that understands her.

She put her arm back into her blanket.

She would fulfill it without question.

”Thank you Yukari, see you next season.” she warmly smiled before she left the house.

With the ghost princess out of the house, the boundary woman tried to go back to sleep again.

There were many unknown variables in Gensokyo, but she only calculated the variables that were absolutely required to know the result of what would happen to her friend. She also knew another thing that would absolutely happen.

She knew this winter would be longer than usual.

Author note:

Heyo, author here, for people that haven't following my thread in the Spacebattle forum, for the past weeks, I've been working and moving my stuff to my new house, that's why I didn't post anything.

About the release frequency, there'll be no more weekly release, it's just gonna be whenever I want. It's hard. Writing the story has become hard for me lately. I guess this is what you called 'Burned out'. You people probably feel it too at the end of Arah part, I kinda hurrying to finishing this chapter. So yeah…

I saw the PV for 'To Aru Index season 3' sometimes ago, I don't know how I feel about that, I probably not gonna watch it because I'm not really interested in anime anymore, I hardly watch one nowadays, beside, it's probably stop at the end of the first season of the novel series (I think the 2nd season novel is the New Testament.)