Hyakka Onjouji
Neo Aoyama, Aoyama Gakuen
Monday ~ Morning
By the time the two of you start along on your personal path, the other students have long since disappeared from the surrounding areas. Of course it's only natural, while Aoyama Gakuen is well known as the first Spirit Tamer Academy, there are a number of students that attend more for the sake of studying the magical sciences than becoming a Spirit Tamer, so the path those students took was seemingly of a more normal disposition, or rather...
They simply do not take the more extreme classes offered by the school; if one simply wishes to become a magi-technician, it's probably not entirely necessary to learn how to fight.
---Of course, to you that is a somewhat baffling answer.
A Spirit Tamer is an honorable position, the equivalent of a literal super hero within the Magic Era! Sure, the idea of getting hurt is kinda scary, but standing up and opposing an impossible opponent in spite of that, wiping away the blood tricking from the corner of your mouth while making a declaration of protection, is a romantic prospect that seems like a waste not to pursue-! Traditional studying was fine, a tried-and-true tested method of getting better at something, but you were going in the direction of what Kaori had called sparring, and didn't that just seem so much more exciting?
...Yes.
Those are the thoughts that carry you onward towards the sounds of crackling flames, explosions, and a woman's loud laughter and critiques. Of course, once you get behind the school it's easy to see where you're going; a distant field encased in a semi-transparent bubble that Kaori explained belonged to a special Harmonizer Field where people could practice combat maneuvers without actually getting hurt, as it is all essentially a fight using data-simulated bodies. It's apparently a super-powerful defensive field that only those affiliated with the Major Tamer Factions are able to utilize, and also a place where a tall dark-haired woman is facing off with a group of about twenty or thirty students by herself. It's the sort of scenario that seems destined to end poorly for the solo fighter, a grim last stand where the goal is to simply defeat as many of your opponents as possible before going down yourself, but-!
"Didn't I tell you guys already? Numbers alone won't do you any good!"
The woman's response is to simply slam the heel of her foot down into the earth, a crashing Axe kick that literally leaves a meteor-like impact in it's wake-!
With the ground they had once been using to charge towards her now literally exploding beneath their feet, the once organized class finds itself falling down into the depths of the earth, their apparent teacher already throwing out the palm of her hand even as they plummet, a crimson light dancing on the tips of her fingers, and-
-discharges a stream of fire into the crater after them.
From a distance it's hard to see whether or not the sudden wave of fire engulfs them, but considering the fact that they had just been thrown onto the mercy of gravity a mere instant before the second attack was launched, it was probably safe to say that she struck the majority of them dead on, indeed...
---If you hadn't been assured that no one was actually getting seriously hurt her earlier, you would have thought you were seeing a much more serious assault, even something close to a death-match, seeing as how the sheer force behind the flames was enough to send the fire spiraling into the air on the opposite side of the crater, guided by the now smooth plating of what is almost certainly molten rock-!
Even so, while it does look like the class as a whole had just lost their sparring match in about five seconds Tamers are superheroes, so-!
"Haaaaaaah-!"
When one bursts from the crater of flames seemingly unharmed with a roar, and is quickly followed after by two, no three more, you're not surprised at all-!
"Made it out huh? Not bad."
Even the teacher praises them for it, however-!
"But you guys still aren't working together-! If you're gonna rely on only numbers, then you gotta do it right-!"
Working together, and attacking the same target, are two very different things. While the first boy to emerge from the flames does so with his fist drawn back, the teacher shows no fear from facing it, thrusting her own forward to meet it even as two others close in from behind their classmate. As a tactic it has some slight merit, trying to get the opponent to block the attack of one while others close in on her, but-!
---It was all from the same direction. Perhaps something would have gone differently if the others had moved to more tactical positions, but to leap at her as one, attacking from one direction without their feet on the ground...
Even you can tell, considering her earlier show of strength...
They'll be blown away.
Absolutely blown away.
The clash of fists lets out a sound like a thunderclap, then-!
All approaching fighters are launched away from their sensei, the sheer shock-wave following behind her fist enough to send them rolling along across the ground on the other side of the crater-!
And with that, it seems like it should end, certainly no one rises to oppose the woman after those first few waves, and yet-
"...Ah. Here it comes."
-Of course it wouldn't end yet, after all...
One more had walked in during the exercise-!
It's something you realize only as the woman turns her gaze towards the two of you, and Kaori suddenly takes three steps forward while motioning for you to stop, placing herself between you and her even as her hand goes to her sword's hilt.
"One moment please Hyakka-chan, it seems I'm not exempt from today's lesson."
And indeed, the sphere of flame that is suddenly launched in her direction is all the confirmation of this that is needed, however-!
Unlike with the others, a single swing of her blade 'cuts' the sphere in half, the fire seemingly flickering to ash as ice crawls along it's halves and-!
In the moment of it's passing, a fist is already coming along behind it, closing in on the student council president-!
"...!"
Her blade is swept from her hands as she attempts to parry, but rather than panic or go for it immediately, the council president reads the flow of the older woman's movements, ducking beneath the kick that comes sweeping towards her side, but letting out a light groan as the teacher seemingly anticipates this too, her spinning kick diving into a leg sweep as the council president slams into the earth, but-!
Gritting her teeth, the light-haired girl puts her palms onto the ground without a hint of hesitation, and launches her body up towards her teacher in a rising dropkick that the teacher deflects with her arm, the sheet momentum behind it enough that the girl can flip backwards onto her feet, her sword moving seemingly of it's own accord into her hand and-
"...Not bad Ikushima. You kept your guard up, good work."
"I do my best, Sensei."
-Just like that, it ends.
Or rather, even though the pose they're in now is a student using all the strength in her body to keep her teacher from completing an axe kick down at her, the two of them seem to have agreed that the battle more or less ends right here, as the teacher withdraws that kick soon enough, the area around you seemingly repairing itself of it's own accord as a robotic voice claims that it's "resetting the simulation" over the speakers.
---In the distance, the once fallen students are already pulling each other to their feet.
In spite of being on the receiving end of a clearly one-sided beat down, the majority of them seem to be in a pretty cheerful mood-!
"But aren't you going a bit hard on the new kids?"
The president questions, and the older woman simply winks at her in response, with a light "not really," before turning her attention to you, a light smile on her face.
"So you're Hyakka-chan right? I've heard a bit about you from Sho."
She leans forward just a bit, head tilting slightly to the side.
"He didn't come with you today?"
...She acts completely normal.
Yes.
In spite of everything she had just done over the past thirty seconds, this woman talks to you as if none of this was actually out of the ordinary at all...!
...Then again, the name Ryuumonbuchi...