Leon I

CHAPTER XXX-2 PRELIMINARIES, PARTICIPANTSAREDETERMINED WEDNESDAYAPRIL24 9:30AM

The day is here. What could be the longest day of my life is finally here. Now lying in bed, it feels overwhelming that I've made it here. And as good as it would feel to look back on the things I did the previous month, I have to get ready for the Trio Tournament today. Mr.Dim said we should wear sweatpants, and a t-shirt. That seemed fitting since we'd be involved in fights, that is if we pass the preliminaries. Only eight teams can make it, and Mr.Dim said he knows that at least sixteen teams try every year. If we get lucky, the number of participating teams may drop. After those few thoughts I got dressed and headed down to the kitchen where my Grandma was once again doing what she did best, cooking.
"I already know you have a big day ahead of you. The Trio Tournament is it?"
"Yeah, I have to leave extra early so that way I can meet my team at the school before it is time to head over to the Arena of Skill. I just came by to ask if I could take a box of wagyu katsu sandwiches for me and the group."
"Sure, you guys have to be filled up if you're going to be giving it all you've got out there. Trust me, I've been to those competitions when you're mother was about your age, and they are really intense."
"Did her team win?"
"No, they came so close in the final battle. It was a great fight though, it left the crowd amazed."
"Woah. That's amazing. I guess that means now I have to pick up where she left off, and win it for her."
"With that spirit I have no doubt you'll win, here you should take the sandwiches and be on your way, you shouldn't be late."
"Okay Grandma, I'll see you after the tournament, which will be several hours from now. Anyway thank you, wish us luck."
"I already have."
"Heh." With those parting words, I closed the door behind and me and I was set. I couldn't waste any time either, that's why I decided to enhance my speed by using my chi. That way I could get there faster. When I first started running, I felt unstable, just ready to fall. It took time before I could adapt to the running and like that it felt like I was running normally again. I arrived at the school in no time, if I had to guess, five minutes tops. I signed in and quickly made it into room twenty-three to be greeted by Quas, Ariel, and Mr.Dim.
"Wow, you all managed to make it here before ten o'clock."
"Yeah I had to run here using my chi just to go faster."
"I just woke up early."
"I did what both Lee and Quas did."
"The only thing that really matters is that you're all here in top condition."
"Yeah, I also brought sandwiches for the day, although we shouldn't eat them now, I was thinking we save them for before and maybe after we fight."
"Good plan Leon, though they will be providing food to first and second round advancers. But still, I'm impressed by your awareness."
"It's nothing really."
"Well with that being said, I say we waste no more time and make our way over to the Arena of Skill. We should try to get over there as soon as possible."
"Yessir!" We all followed him to where he was leading us, the Arena of Skill. While we were walking there, he told us some rules and things about the tournament. Apparently, we had to qualify for the tournament and the way we did it was that we had to test the strength of our chi. Then the officials would announce the top eight teams with the strongest chi measurements. It honestly sounds like a good, but unnecessary system to me, but I don't make the rules here. We got there slowly and when we arrived, I could see teams and instructors everywhere. If I had to count, eighteen teams in total, count us, that's nineteen.
"Come on, we have to go over here and check in." As I walked through the groups, I saw four familiar faces, Mrs.Dexter, Aaron, Turner, and Scarlett. They were just there chatting along with other teams. If I had to guess, they all felt confident they secured a spot in the tournament.
"Here we are. Stay here while I talk to the tournament official, afterwards they'll test your chi strength and from that point forward we'll hope you qualified." He left us three to talk to him, and while he did that Quas asked me a question.
"What happens if we don't qualify?"
"Don't worry, my intuition just tells me that we have a chance. Accompanied with the fact that our scores won't be against that of Copper Clan members." I looked back at him, and I could just see the doubt, nervousness. It was that same face he was making after he was defeated by Scarlett.
"(Don't forget about the mission. Remember, you get what you want, but only if the plan is able to go into action. The plan lies within you) I'm fine, I'm fine, I just had to regather my thoughts, but now I'm confident. It's like Mr.Red said, we exceeded the high expectations of a trainee team."
"That's what I like to hear." I didn't know what happened, but he just got a sudden burst of reassurance. As long as he was in the mood, I guess I couldn't question him.
"Alright, I was just told that it's time for you to qualify and that we are the last team to do it before they announce the participants." We followed Mr.Dim, who was following a tournament official, to a machine that had a number board on it.
"Okay, the way this works is I'm going to have each of you punch into this machine using the base amount of chi you can channel, no more, no less. Trying to channel more chi than asked will result in team disqualification, and you will not be allowed the chance to participate in this year's Trio Tournament. Simple?"
"Yessir!"
"Okay, who's first?"
"I'll go first sir." Quas stepped up and was reminded of the rule, exerting more chi than normal resulted in disqualification. He made it quick, charging his chi, and delivering a smashing strike to the pad. After the punch, the number board scattered through various numbers, before settling on...
"Three hundred is your score. That's pretty high for a trainee."
"Great job Quas."
"Ariel's right. If he said that's pretty high for a trainee, I think that hints that our chances of making it into the tournament are pretty high, don't you think?"
"Can't disagree."
"Okay, who's next." Ariel volunteered this time, and it was the same process as Quas, she got reminded of the rules, charged her chi, and gave a straight fist to the pad. Once more, it read through various numbers before stopping on...
"Two hundred ninety. Astounding, I haven't seen this type of power
trainees since a few years ago, what type of training did you put them through Dim."
"Can't really say the training made them this strong, it was really their dedication that made them this strong."
"Spoken like a true instructor. Now lastly, you." He told me it was now my turn, and like Ariel and Quas, I got the same, repetitive, sentence about how I could get our team disqualified, and afterward I charged as much chi as I could without exerting
myself, and I threw the hardest punch I could. Numbers began dancing on the number board before it landed on...
"Two hundred eighty-five. You guys are amazing. You may now go back to the rest of the crowd and we'll be there in about five minutes with all the scores tallied and who the participants are. Good luck." He left, writing as he walked away to the other gathered officials.
"Hey let's go talk to some of the competition."
"What are thinking Quas, we should keep to ours-"
"It would be good to at least know who we are competing against, right?"
"Okay, fine, but we try to keep away from a specific three."
"Okay, okay, let's speak to those guys over there." He pointed over to a group that looked old enough to be trainees like us, just a bit younger though. We approached them, calm and friendly, they even noticed us while we walked over.
"Hey!" The group consisted of one short kid with short hair and a particularly similar outfit to mine. Then there were two girls, one of them who was really inshape and the other who looked very menacing.
"My name Togu. My friends names ar-"
"I can introduce myself Togu, if you don't mind."
"Okay then, Syithi."
"Why you little..." The boy and the inshape girl began fighting and the girl I considered menacing introduced herself.
"My name is Caronita, and yours?"
"Oh, I'm Leon, or you can call me Lee, whichever you prefer."
"You sound nervous, anyway my name Ariel, pleasure to meet you."
"Yeah, that's her name and my name is Quas."
"Nice to meet you all. I suppose you're all trainees like us, right?"
"Yeah, we just finished our power scaling for the tournament. My score was two hundred eighty-five."
"I scored just higher at two ninety."
"I scored the highest with an astounding three hundred."
"Impressive, I scored a two hundred and ninety-five. Togu here scored three hundred as well, and Syithi scored big with three hundred twenty-five."
"Wow, I must say that's amazing. And if it comes to our teams having to fight, all I can say is it'll be a great fight don't you think."
"Yes, personally I believe that our power scaling means nothing if it's really close. If we were to fight each other though, it would be a pleasure."
"That is if we make it." Just as I finished that sentence, the tournament officials gathered the attention of all nineteen teams.
"We have determined the eight teams that will be partaking in this year's Clan Advancement Trio Tournament. We'll first start off with the four Copper Clan teams that have entered this year. This team placed fifth in the overall power scaling rank, and therefore they are assigned the number five, that team is, Mr.Huyugo's."
After they announced the instructor's name, they then announced the names of his three students, a boy named Muta, a girl named Linil, and another boy named Zounichi.
"Next this team placed first in the overall power scaling rank,, and therefore they are assigned the number one spot." I had a feeling I knew who team one would be, it had to have been them.
"That team is Ms.Anthem's team, and her students D'Mako, Nes, and Wagner." I couldn't believe it and as I looked at Ariel and Quas, they had the same confusion on their faces. Mrs.Dexter's team was indeed not the number one power ranking team.
"Next, this team ranked second in the power scaling rank, this team is Mrs.Dexters' team, and her students, Aaron, Turner, and Scarlett." Second. If they weren't first, they had to have been second. Which means we may have more issues than we intended today."
"This next team placed seventh in the power scaling rank, that team is Mr.Ryon's team, and his students Synar, Ray, Crystal." I heard those names. Those were the people that Mrs.Dexter's team soared against when we had to meditate. I am amazed though, amazed that they placed seventh and they are in the Copper Clan. That means at least three trainee teams have surpassed them in the power ranking, that's pathetic.
"Now that we have finished the Copper Clan teams, the remaining teams that are of that rank my leave." As he said that I could see at least seven teams leave. That would have meant that only twelve, not counting those already in, eight teams. And all of them were trainees. Do the math, we have a fifty-fifty chance of being chosen based on blind luck.
"The next team to enter the tournament placed sixth in the power scaling rank, that is the team of Mr.Dim, and his students, Quas, Ariel, and Leon."
"Yes!"
"We did it, we're in!"
"I can't believe it!"
"Congratulations, I think we should join the rest of the participants." Quas, Ariel, and then myself all showed how excited we were one by one. I was blown away, our team had just been selected sixth, I didn't even care about the rank, I was just elated we made it. As we approached the other four teams standing next to the Arena, I couldn't help but notice Aaron was looking at us, specifically Ariel, the one he fought before, and as she noticed him, he gave her a thumbs up. If I had to summarize what that meant, I think he did that because he wanted to fight her again, during the tournament.
"Next, This team placed third in the power scaling rank, that is the team of Mr.Velril, and his students, Syithi, Togu, and Caronita." After he said those names they began approaching the rest of us. It took time but then it clicked, I remembered what Caronita told us about their power scales, and I remembered just how close it was to ours. And they placed third. That could only mean that from the third, all the way to the sixth rank, the power scales were very close.
Now there were only two teams left to be announced, six teams remained waiting to hear their instructors name called.
"Next, this team placed eight in the power scaling, that team is Ms.Ginta, and her students, Tyrax, Dentin, Kenshi." They were last place in the ranking, so I guess they could be taken lightly, but then again, it's like Caronita said, power scaling doesn't really matter if it's close, but I don't know if it is or not.
"Lastly, this team ranked fourth in the power scaling rank, this is the team of Mr.Dexter, and his students, Neto, Claces, and Chaner." That's all of us. After the last team was announced the four remaining teams left returning to the school, I could only assume disappointed. The next step in this process was to see which team would face who, one thing is for sure, whoever gets stuck with facing Mrs.Dexters team, or Ms.Anthems team, they're going to have a troublesome time.