Point-of-View: Mitchell Jones

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", !" I exclaimed, activating my Manifestations and leaping around the corner, startling Andre, who quickly sprang back and activated his own Manifestations.

"!"

I then flew up and raised my tails as if to whip them straight down at him, he responded by crossing his arms above himself defensively...just as planned.

"You lose," I remarked with a smirk.

"Huh? What are you-...," He began, before trailing off as he realized what I meant, but it was too late.

When I activated my Manifestations, I deliberately did so in a loud voice, to mask the sound of Katie reciting her activation chant, and the moment I had his full attention, I was supposed to signal her by saying something...it didn't matter what I said, just that I said something.

And the moment I did, it was her turn to shine.

"."

A blast of yellow lightning burst out towards Andre, he noticed it far too late, a look of alarm on his face as it reached him, the Duel Field teleporting him out before he could get electrocuted to death.

"Nice, it went just at planned," I remarked with a grin, descending back down to the ground and dissipating my Manifestations.

"Why do you sound so smug? It wasn't your plan," She replied, walking over.

Man, her blank tone can sometimes feel pretty brutal. I mean, sure, she was right, it was Kilzachs' plan, but she didn't have to put it that way.

"Yeah, well, I executed it!" I argued indignantly.

"I executed the more important part."

Is she...deliberately trying to piss me off?

"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop messing with m-," I began with a sigh.

"We don't have time for this. Let's go."

...I hate her.

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Point-of-View: Seila Khan

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Okay, stay focused...my target is Makoto, and taking him out should be pretty simple, especially since I'm keeping track of his exact location while I hunt him down. The moment I find him, I'll form my expansive blades and extend them towards him before he can react and finish him off.

That was the plan that Kilzachs had come up for me, though he did say that the plans he came up with for each of us were just suggestions and that if we had better ideas, we were free to act as we pleased.

It was a good enough suggestion, though, and should be pretty easy to execute, not to mention efficient, so I'll go with it. Hm, at the speed that he's moving, I should encounter him soon...he's straight ahead of me, and he hasn't taken any turns for a while...if he takes a turn before I get to him, it'll give me the chance to attack him from behind, but even if he doesn't, it's not a problem.

I'm just a matter of seconds away from before he comes into sight, better get ready to activate my Primary Manifestation the moment he does...inevitably, when I see him, he'll see me too, but that's fine...he's a close-range fighter with average agility at best, so I'm a bad match for him...I wonder if Kilzachs took that into account when assigning each of our targets.

"Oh, it's the clumsy chick," Came a sneer, as I finally caught sight of him, a smirk appearing on his face as he looked at me up and down, making my skin crawl, "Tell you what, I'll give you the win if you 'accidentally' fall on me, what do you say?"

...ew. On second thought, he deserves worse than a swift defeat from a distance, I'm not going to use my expansive blades, no, that would be too easy...

"," I remarked, as yellow lightning crackled around my arms and I shot towards him at top speed.

"Woah, ...oof!" He began in alarm, before I cut his chant short with a swift punch to the solar plexus.

He let out a strained gasp and stumbled back, clutching his midsection with a pained look on his face, which was pale and sweating profusely. I closed in again as he stumbled back and unleashed a triple strike with the back of my right fist, on his throat, mouth and finally square onto the middle of his nose, breaking it.

"D-damn it, you bitch-!" He exclaimed as he let out a choked gasp of pain.

I should end this now.

"," I chanted, before teleporting him away with a slash aimed at his head.

That was about as easy as I expected, even if I took more time than I needed to. I checked the map to see where everyone else was...looks like our side is still intact, while two of the other team had already been defeated. And it looks like Kilzachs is about to encounter the third one...I should get into position to execute the next part of the plan...

But first, I think I'll take a quick breather. I let out a slow exhale and let myself relax, after double-checking to make sure that there was no one anywhere near me. I took a step towards the wall to sit down against...and tripped and fell on my face.

Ow...maybe letting myself relax was a bad idea. I've been clumsy all my life and I've fallen more times that I can count...and then, in middle school, a friend suggested a mind over matter approach, to pretend that I'm someone who isn't clumsy. And, to my immense surprise and disbelief...it actually worked.

It almost felt like I was getting in character and acting, I would convince myself that I'm someone who's cool and collected, and most importantly, not clumsy...and whenever I did so, it was like I became a different person.

But on the flipside, doing so was pretty mentally exhausting, and I definitely couldn't keep it up indefinitely, only when I'm in a fight or training or in any serious situation, really, like a funeral or something.

Anyway, I should get going now, it looks like Kilzachs has encountered his target, so it shouldn't be too long before the next stage of his plan is put into motion...

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Point-of-View: Kilzachs Light

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So, if you asked me whether the plan I concocted for this exercise was the most efficient plan I could have come up with...the answer to that would be no, I deliberately made a couple of decisions that would make the plan less efficient than it could have been, for the sake of my own personal bias...but hey, it should still be a pretty effective plan, so whatever.

And I've just come across my target, whom I'd picked for myself for no other reason that the chance to gain some personal satisfaction. Oh, I'm going to enjoy this, I've been waiting for this for quite a long time...

"Strategically speaking, I probably shouldn't waste too much time with you...but that's going to be tough, I've got a lot of pent-up resentment to let out, after all," I remarked coldly.

"I-I...," She began to reply, before trailing off and activating her Manifestation instead.

"What, got nothing to say for yourself? Well, that's fine, it doesn't really matter...so long as I get to inflict some serious pain right here and now."

"Y-you...you should get over it," She suddenly retorted, a nervous expression on her face, before blurting out, "Th-that was all more than five years ago!"

Huh...I just realized, that's probably the longest sentence she's said to me since before that whole thing in school...ever since I wound up in the same class as her at the X-Warrior Academy, she'd hardly said a word to me at all.

Whenever Asshole would talk down to me, she'd join in, but she'd avoid looking at me and it kinda felt like she was just saying all that stuff to appease him and stay on his good side. She never taunted me if he wasn't around...and come to think of it, even that time when I caused a bit of conflict between her and Misaki, RIP to that bitch, even then she didn't say much to me, she just mumbled something.

She really is pathetic, fucking me over when we were classmates in school in order to get in with the popular crowd, and now, the person whom she'd most tried to impress back then was one of the least popular in the class, and she clearly didn't have the nerve to screw him over the way she did to me.

She's the most weak-willed person I've ever met, and I seriously hate her guts...so for someone like that to talk down to me and tell me to get over something that she caused, something that really fucked me up for quite a while, it kinda ticked me off...

"I should get over it, huh?" I inquired icily, before adding viciously, "Yeah, that's great, piss me off even more than I already am...and you know what, I think I'll feed you that exact line...yeah, I'll tell you to 'get over it', after I beat the fucking shit out of you."

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