Chapter 41: (34) Hey Aya

“I’m sorry Yuumi, but I can’t just let you go out there and expose your dueling to the other academies.” Light explains.

…

Ok, I understand that excuse is a helluva lot better than I expected, but it still leaves one question. “And you are fine with the public seeing you send out the only natural penta-summoner in the world right into the back lines of a broadcast tournament?” This whole thing sound like a public relations nightmare. Hell, going by the reactions of my friends that are still in the room, it’s already shocking people.

“*Sigh* yes, I know the public will hate me for this, but between having your play style known worldwide and some backlash, I prefer the first option.”

I can’t help but suspiciously raise an eyebrow at that point. “Wait, I’ve already dueled people in the academy many times and I’m pretty sure a lot more people saw me at the plaza. How come my style isn’t known by everyone yet?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. We censor any duels coming out of the academy and from what I could gather, that duel with the bot only showed the bare essentials.”

After some consideration, I decide to just move past that point.

“You know what? Fine.” I tell Light, there are a lot more questions in my head - like how is Mia supposed to enter the 900 Elo bracket - but right now I reason that none of them are as important as what the fuck happened to Aya.

Light furrows his brow. “Is that right?”

I nod, and the others seem to get what I mean.

“Very well. I will call you back on the weekend when it’s time to go.” The Director confirms.

With this, I walk to the elevator and notice that the others aren’t following me.

Yasuna clears that up. “Sorry Yuumi, but we have some questions. If you want to follow Aya, then you go alone.”

I raise an eyebrow. “After all this time, are you still opposed to helping her?”

I get nothing from Yasuna other than a stern look.

Mia and Aiko look down but decide to stay quiet.

Annoyed, I press the down button on the elevator and the doors close.

‘God dammit!… I can’t blame her, but still! I thought I dealt with this! How can someone hold that much of a grudge? Sure, Aya might have done things I find difficult to forgive and with Yasuna, she may never forgive her, but it is clear that Aya isn’t the same person she used to be!’

Honestly, I didn’t know what made her change so much so quickly, but it’s clear it all started after she lost the duel against me.

The elevator doors open and, thankfully, this time, I’m not faced with anyone trying to block me. I walk out of the tower and start making my way to that Aya most likely retreated to. The yellow dorm. I reason it’s likely that she went to her room to sulk. Sulk about what? I don’t know. An entire month has passed since she has done something I find despicable, so I don’t know why she suddenly felt guilty about it.

On my way to the yellow dorm, I notice a commotion around the blue ones. From the looks of it, there’s a duel happening right out of the front of the dorm.

‘Someone probably used the wrong fork when eating desert.’ I amuse myself. There were tales from the blue dorm on the NWDA forum and they tell of stories like that. People there get really offended when someone does something that they deem improper.

Still, I can’t help but get curious, so I take a detour and walk to where a crowd is already forming. People here seem to flock to fights like this, and that makes them get sizeable crowds quickly. Well, until security shows up and clears the perimeter. It’s not like duels aren’t allowed, but crowds make it difficult for people to move around.

“Excuse me, sorry, coming through.” I say, trying to get to the center so I can see what is happening. One of the many disadvantages of being short.

When I get a look at what’s happening, I can’t help but let my mouth hang open.

‘AYA, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?’

There was Aya, dueling two blue ranks that were keen on spitting as many insults as possible at her.

“See princess? How does it feel, dropout, rank-down, useless, skill-less, trash, waste of air?”

“That’s right! Finish her, dark magician girl! Black Magic Attack!” The other announces.

‘Shit, that’s bad… I’m not sure if I should intervene here.’

I open the strategic view of the duel in front of me and notice Aya’s got exactly 2000LP, which means this won’t have any over damage. Still, taking just any amount of damage in a duel will cause injury, but I’m sure she’s prepared for this.

Aya stays still, and, contrary to what I assumed, takes the attack in full.

“ARRG!” She grunts and stumbles to the ground, her life points reaching zero.

“You’ll never amount to anything you waste of life, peasant.” Her opponents keep spitting. “Now crawl back to your indecently dressed friend.” She finishes giving me a long side glance that practically screams venom.

Aya doesn’t take long to notice me. She quickly struggles to get up and tries to get away from here. Her injuries prevent that, and she stumbles to the ground.

“Pathetic.” A spectator comments from the crowd.

…

I stay still for a few seconds, taking in the egregious situation in front of me. Finally, I get my shit together and, staying silent, step forth next to where Aya lays, quietly sobbing into the concrete floor. Carefully, I grab the crying girl and, using my new strength, hold her up in a princess carry, not paying attention to the stunned looks of the nearby students or the insults that started coming my way from the two duelists.

————

I take Aya to the yellow dorms nurse’s office, and she complains all the way there. No Aya, I don’t care that it was just 8000LP of damage, its damage regardless of the amount. Even while complaining, she doesn’t let slip anything that could reveal her attitude change.

‘This is a problem.’

Sitting down next to the hospital bed where she’s laying I ask. “Now, you are going to tell me exactly what’s going on here. I don’t care about secrecy right now. You weren’t like this before, not after our duel, or a week ago. So please Aya, tell me, what changed?”

She looks to the other side, eliciting an eye-roll from me, but, regardless of how she’s felling, she speaks. “My father called me this morning…”

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…

…

“What did he say?” I ask meekly. Even if I can’t do anything about it, I at least want to know what made Aya so depressed.

“Well… My demotion has made rounds around the academy and has now reached my family… I promised my father I would make him proud for sending me here, but after this latest embarrassment he ordered me to return to the mainland and follow another path, probably business school…”

‘Shit, so this isn’t just her feeling guilty… Crap, how do I deal with this? Or should I even try to deal with it in the first place? This is between Aya and her family after all…’

“This is your third year here. Is he really going to make you waste two years of your life just because of a misguided promise? Also, what makes him think he can make these decisions for you? You're an adult Aya.”

“Easy for you to say as an orphan. You don’t have your dynasties’ expectations to worry about.”

…

‘Aye, she got me there.’

“How close are you to rank up?” I ask.

“After that duel? 20 Elo.” She reveals.

“That’s like… one duel.”

“Maybe for you, normally that takes two duels. Why do you think I was going against those blue ranks?”

“Right. What was that about?”

She looks away from me. “Nothing… Just some childish ambitions…”

An awkward silence follows, where I contemplate what she just said.

From what I could gather this is something I can’t help with, if her father is really going to pull her funding then that’s the end of that, unlike the red ranks and other upstarts at the academy who normally work during the summer break to afford tuition for the next year, Aya doesn’t have a way to pay for herself, and there’s also the issue of her not wanting to go against her father’s wishes, which is the bigger problem here.

If money was the problem, all things considered, I’m pretty sure the Director would have no problems with waving that fee for one year if she were to take part in a tournament purely on his request. But with her family involved, that would be highly irresponsible.

This train of thought brings me to another conclusion.

‘I really became a massive softy, huh? Worrying like this for the one person who I can say has really caused some problems here…’

“Well, I have a suggestion.” I suddenly break the silence. This will be a gamble.

“I’m listening.” Aya says, still not looking my way.

“Call your father, tell him you’ve been called to take part in a tournament by the Director himself, then suggest to him to postpone his decision based on the result of the tournament. This is not ideal, if he accepts your performance in the tournament will decide if you stay here, but, if you really don’t want to give up being a duelist, I don’t see another option that doesn’t involve going against your wishes to not antagonize him.” Is what I suggest to Aya. I’m uncomfortable suggesting stuff that will affect her life massively like this without knowing everything but I’m assuming here that she’s not just going to take my word for it and not think about it herself, it is her life after all and she’s an adult.

Aya turns to me with a face still wet with tears. “So you came to the same conclusion, huh?”

I raise an eyebrow, confused by what she means.

“That’s what I did after storming off…” she reveals.

‘Well, that’s what I get for thinking I’m smarter than anyone…’

“How did that go?”

“Either I finish at top 3 or I’m out.”

That’s really harsh, top 3 means top 3 in the tournament not in her bracket, so she’ll need to win her bracket, which is the most difficult one in the tournament.

“Fine, I’ll help you.” I reveal.

Aya’s eyes open wide. “Why? I’ve never done anything for you… Why would you help me?”

I chuckle. “I ask the same thing myself sometimes. Guess I’m just a softie, but it just doesn’t feel right to see you struggle like this and… look away…”

This revelation leaves Aya stunned. To where she’s looking at me with her eyes wide open.

“Well, I’m going. Knock on my door tomorrow when you want to meet.”

I leave her like that. I’m pretty sure her eyes would dry out if I stayed there any longer.

————

I had to go back to the cheerleading club building to return my outfit. While I was in there, Haru confronted me. Apparently, she got the memo and went in for a hug, thanking me for the opportunity to show off. The cheerleading team for this tournament will be small, only comprising me, Haru, Nanako and Naeko. I’m confused by the size, I guess I’ll look into the tournament just to see where it will take place, not that I have to worry about it, the Director will be the one to manage the logistics (well, I doubt that Light himself will deal with it; he has staff after all.) Other than that, we will go over the routine for the tournament tomorrow and we’ll practice it during the trip.

With that dealt with, I return to the dorm. I go check on Aya but she’s not there, asking the nurse she informs me Aya went back to her room at her initiative after the nurse administered the nanogel, so I too go back to my room.

After undressing, I sit down at my desk and while I was expecting to open up a browser and find out more about the tournament, but my mind drifted away to Aya’s situation.

‘Will I have to deal with something similar when the Katayama Familly finds me?’

I mean, I shouldn’t. They have nothing over me. The only thing they could try to do to bring me back forcefully is to make public what happened, and I’m pretty sure that would cause a massive scandal for them. Throwing away a child just because of teenage rebellion - especially when you have maids and dedicated caretakers - and then trying to bring that child back after it is revealed, she has talents that you never found out about is something I don’t see going over well here. Especially now that I’m an adult and can make my own decisions. Of course, lying can also happen, but I have nothing to lose by just throwing the truth out there and between a shady family and the only natural penta-summoner in the world I’m sure I know who the public will side with.

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