Chapter 3 - Connivance

After a crying session with Kurumi, we washed our plates together chatting about different kinds of stuff and her being clingy with me and all. Soon after she left, I realized how embarrassing it was for a boy to be crying in front of a girl. I slapped myself and buried my face into my pillow. While I was being preoccupied over that fact, someone rang the bell of my door. It was almost 10 pm so I was wondering who might it be and went to the intercom to ask.

"Who's there?"

I did not get any reply. So, I decided to check the peephole and I was beyond surprised at what I saw. It was Hayakawa-Sensei. I was a bit hesitant but she gave me a very sharp glare and I was forced to open my door.

"What do you want at this hour?"

"You already know what I want. Come out here, we need to talk."

I kind of knew what she wanted to know but ignoring her at this point would be bad for me and I did not expect her to approach this early either.

We were walking on the road and were on our way to some unknown place I did not know about. Since I was a bit confused I decided to ask about it.

"Uh, where exactly are we going Sensei?"

She took out a pack of cigarette and lit one and put in her mouth. She blew it off and was walking still without answering my question. I sighed and said...

"You sure it is alright to smoke on campus? rather you are smoking in front of the person you should be supervising you know."

"Who cares. It's not like you are going to tell about it to anyone."

"I might."

"If you do I will file a false charge about you."

"That's playing dirty Sensei..."

"Not as much as you."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't think I did not notice it."

She got close to me and grabbed my arm. She moved so fast that I was not able to react to her movements at all and her grip strength was tremendous too. She removed my clothes which was covering my arm and exposed the dark bruise which was embedded in my arm.

"I knew it. It was you who casted that Dark Elemental spell didn't you?"

At this point, it would make things worse If I hide the fact. So, I decided to tell everything.

"Yes, it was me. I wanted to try and see whether other signs can use other Elementals or not and who knows it seems like it works."

"Nope. It was only special for you."

"What do you mean?"

While we were talking I did not realize that we had come to some unknown open field kind of area. It was very secluded and with Hayakawa-Sensei here, I was rather scared as to what was going to happen. She took a deep breath and told me.

"Akihiro, fight me with your Dark Elemental here."

"Huh!?"

Did I just hear that wrong or did she say to fight her with Dark Elemental? With that look in her eyes, she is not joking. I asked again to confirm...

"Are you sure Sensei? I mean I am not that good and all but still..."

"Hit me with your best shot.''

''If...If you say so."

I don't know what she is thinking but I won't be saved by ignoring her here. I sighed and rushed at her...

"Dark Elemental - Wave of Shadows"

I tried to punch her first which she blocked with her left hand while holding her cigarette in the right. Not going to lie that was badass. Then my spell activated and shadow arms came clustering from beneath the ground. She let out a grin and took a deep breath.

"Light Elemental - Spirit Shower"

"What the...."

Raindrop of Lights dropped from the magic circle above the hands and instantly exterminated all the shadow hands. Just like that she beat the hardest Dark Elemental magic I knew of. But she used Light Elemental Magic which I heard that none of the people in Zemuria had. But Hayakawa-Sensei used one. I widened my eyes and asked her with a curious look in my eyes.

"Sensei...was that...Light Elemental Magic?"

"Yes, it was."

"But you are the supervisor of Gemini. You should be able to only use Wind Elemental Magic."

"Then how do you explain your Dark Elemental Magic?"

"That is..."

I went silent. Indeed, I don't have anything to base my explanation for that. I did not even know I could use it. I just went ahead and said a beginning spell name I knew of Dark Elemental. Ahead of time, on the very first day, I went to the library and learned some spell names to test out the theory of whether other signs could use other Elementals. I could have used other Elemental like Fire or Water too but it caught my curiosity as to how Dark and Light Elementals were not registered in any of the signs and since Light Elemental was something no one can use, I decided to go try the Dark Elemental.

Of course, I can't tell her that. If I told her I read spell names in Library, she is going to file it in my case since the Library is supposed to be off-limits to us. But what she said to me surprised me the most...

"Say Akihiro, how about you train under me?"

"Huh?"

"What do you say?"

"I am not sure what you're talking about.''

"I am saying you have potential when it comes to using Dark Elemental. So, how about you come and train under me? I use Light Elemental so you can train your Dark Elemental with me."

What she says is true. If I need a good training partner for assessing my Dark Elemental, it has to be against a Light Elemental. But that does not answer my question so I pressed on with it even though I was at a disadvantage over here.

"Can you answer my question then?"

''I will answer it once you're strong enough. How about that?"

''Sounds good."

That sounds good for me for now. If I get that answer out of her then I will be left with more questions and I have to figure out all those stuff if I want to go to my original world with everyone because to me...playing games does not seem credible enough.

But if she really thought I would agree just like that then she was wrong. I was looking forward to a situation like this would happen where she was asking something from me. If this did not happen I was going to take another approach to make her do something I wanted. I sat down and looked at the night sky and she did the same liting another cigarette.

"So, what do you say?"

"I will agree but one condition."

"You do know I can always cancel this deal as well as the teaching part right? I don't think you are in a position to ask something from a supervisor."

"I know. But since you showed me your Light Elemental, I think I have some upper hand."

"You sure are clever aren't you? I guess all quiet people grow out to be observant."

"Can't say much on that."

"What do you want then?"

"I want you to place me as the Cardholder for Gemini."

She raised her eyebrows and blew out the smoke. She let out a laugh and turned to look towards me.

"Fufu...You sure say some interesting things, don't you?"

"I wish I was joking but I am not."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"You said people are randomly chosen but I don't think so. If you really did chose randomly then the worst-case scenario would be that most signs will have weak people chosen as the Cardholder which will affect that sign very hard. The people will have to play the Penalty game and the number of deaths would be huge."

"You sure thought about it hard. I did not believe anyone will notice it this early."

"I bet most people did not. You could say the advantage of being an introvert."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. But you do know that I have risks here too."

"I know that is why I wanted to offer you set which Secret Cardholder power should I use."

She was surprised by my reply. It seems like she did not except this bargain from me. She threw the cigarette away and got up while looking forward. While moving forward she told me...

"Then go for the #4 one. Raise the ranks."

"That's the one I wanted the least but I guess that's alright."

"You sure seemed confident. You do realize that if you choose that you have to fight against all of them?"

''Yeah, I do but I was the one who asked for your favor so I can't reject you can I?"

"You are a nice kid."

"How I was raised. I will try my best but I can't guarantee it."

"As long as you try that's enough for me."

I was glad that she agreed to the terms but I wanted one more thing. It was the confirmation for winning this game...

"Hayakawa-Sensei, I want you to keep my name hidden while announcing the Cardholders."

She stopped in her tracks and looked back at me with curiosity in her eyes. She asked...

"What do you mean?"

"It's nothing special. There is nothing specific in the rules that you can't use fake names to trick your opponents right?"

''There isn't. You really are a dirty cheater aren't you?"

"I did not like how you phrased it but I guess I am and I am proud of it."

She laughed and again with her back turned on me said...

"Consider that done as well. See you tomorrow at this same place, Cheater."

"D...Don't call me that!!"

Ending on that note, she left. I don't know how late it was. I was loving the night wind that flowing. I looked up at the sky and realized that it has begun officially.

I bet all the other signs are conspiring something behind our backs as well but I am pretty sure no one has still realized this loophole in the rules since none of our Supervisors explained anything like this. It was also due to the fact that they were so engrossed on how to survive that they would not realize it.

The confirmation seed has been planted. All I need to do is protect it now. I looked at the dark bruise on my hand and came to a realization. Hayakawa-Sensei, the origin of the games, Dark and Light Elemental Magic, and Zemuria as a whole. There are too many mysteries right now which I need to solve whilst protecting my class. This kind of development gets my heart racing. No matter what happens, I will find everything and destroy everything because...

I have a reason to go home now. I will definitely survive this psycho world and take Kurumi and the others with me. No matter what underhanded ways I have to do in order to achieve that. I will do it gladly.