"……Stop standing there and state your business already."

After a cold sigh, with a voice like the murmuring of a clear stream— the girl spoke to me.

Maybe she had been patiently waiting for my response, she furrowed her brows from displeasure and glared at me afterwards.

"…H-Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry."

I find myself to be apologizing instinctively. It was probably I was staring at her for too long.

…Come to think of it, I almost lost myself there. What is she…? It's like I'm getting sucked into some sort of abyss.

This girl is dangerous— really, really, dangerous. I need to be careful not to get draw in again by her eyes.

"Erm… I just transferred here today, and I got lost somehow, can you show me the way to the Student Council building…?" I asked with a smile.

For how eerie and awkward my smile is, I guess anyone would be able to tell just from her reaction.

"…this— again."

The girl hung her head low as she gave me somewhat a reply.

For some reason, she then placed her hand on her temple, seeming to have gotten herself a headache.

Then she glared at me with a scornful look on her face, as though as I was a mere bug.

…A mere bug? As if I could accept that sort of belittling gaze.

I responded kindly with a tender smile.

"……!"

Then, it’s as if she realized something— her gaze immediately softens.

“(…That can’t be…!)”

Or so I heard her soft whispering afterwards.

…It was a whisper that was meant to herself, but I was able to hear it because my hearing is just that unexceptionally good.

She seems overly surprised for some reason, but I just couldn’t tell what is it.

Once again, her expression changed— it looks extremely complexed.

She was somehow angry, yet she seems delighted with her soaked eyes— as if her tears are going to fall at any moment.

…I also noticed that her hand was trembling. She was trying to hide the fact that she was.

What is the meaning of this…? How should I even react to this?

After a deep breath while clenching her skirt, the expression she made earlier had disappeared entirely— with nothing but a firm expression now.

From the look of it, it seems she's going to ask something…

"…duel with me, now."

"Wha— no way!" I instantly refused.

Such a frightening thing to demand! I'm trying to avoid this at all cost…! And it’d be troublesome if I stand out and cause a huge on ruckus on my first day…!

Besides… she seems strong. Even though she was the one who proposed that duel, she doesn’t have any intention to put away her package that she’s holding right now. Is she so confident that she could beat me one-handed? Quite the character.

Seeming to have already anticipated my answer, the girl then held out her right hand on her chest.

"…I, Kuroyuki Shiroha hereby challenge you, Lucifer Vermillion, to a forced duel." She murmured.

A duel, by its definition, is a contest with deadly weapons arranged between two people in order to settle a point of honour.

However, a duel nowadays is merely a contest between two parties. And for what the contest is, it's to fight till either one of the parties was knocked out or surrender. 

Even so, a duel must require both of the party's permission in order to execute it.

If you were to force it, the opponent would be forced to participate in the duel, then both parties must fight till either one was knocked out, and surrendering is not allowed.

To go to such lengths… are you nuts?! Can't you even see? I’m wearing a white blazer—

“…!”

—when I realized, she’s also wearing a white blazer.

“…You are……”

While murmuring those words, I immediately backed off to escape from the duel’s activation range— but it was already too late.

…The system detected her request and my presence.

A screen then showed up between us, making its arrangements.

'ERROR. OPPONENT 'LUCIFER VERMILLION' DOES NOT EXIST.'

Lucifer— Vermillion?

Is this a coincidence…? I thought I was the only person named as such… it seems the world is bigger than I thought. The guy she mentioned had the first same name as me…?

Thankfully, the duel wasn’t acknowledged by the system. The screen disappeared afterwards.

While heaving a sigh of enlightenment, that girl's murmurs caught my attention.

"……so it's not you…"

While murmuring those words with an extremely tired voice— she adverts her eyes afterwards.

She looks so fully filled with disappointment and sadness… as if her tears might burst out at any moment.

I wondered why, my heart was oddly tensed up— as if it's being tightly squeezed to the verge of getting a cardiac arrest.

Eventually, that girl held back her tears.

It’s as if she finally understood what she was going to do, she gave me a quick, once-over cold look, and pointed her right hand diagonally downwards to her 10 o'clock direction.

"…there." She added.

“Huh…?”

My head inadvertently turns to where she pointed.

I can’t see a thing from up here. It’s actually quite surprising that she could tell the right direction.

"………………"

With that, the girl turned her heels and walks to the edge of the branch. And before I could ask for some clearer directions or saying my thanks to her— she had already jumped down from this height and vanished from my sight.

This girl is even stranger than what that guy told me.

…Come to think of it, the package she was carrying seems like a lunchbox. Looks like I spoiled her mood for breakfast.

You could’ve just ask me kindly to leave.

Speaking of leave… it seems I have been wandering around for too long.

The system works fine just now; it seems I could use my device now.

“…Time.”

‘8.24am.’

Still have time. I should get going. I don’t like to be late.

"Hup…!"

"…Stay back..."

The moment I jumped down, I heard the girl’s voice.

She's still here? Sounds like she's in trouble… But that's impossible, right? She’s not a weak girl that needs to be rescued like a princess.

If she’s just like what Principal described it to be, I better get out of here before it’s too late.

…Hope I won’t crash land on her or anybody.

Brushing across the flowers, the view below shocked me through and through.

"...Whoa? What's with this thick fog…!?" I said to myself.

That fog is preventing from measuring my timing to prepare a landing posture.

Flexing my fist as hard as I could, I managed to thin out a little fog with the shock wave just below my area— revealing a green spot.

However, the surrounding fog immediately gathered afterwards.

…Well, better than nothing.

THUD.

I landed safely. It didn’t take long for the mist around me to thicken again.

Even if I’m adapted to extreme temperature changes… I’m feeling chilly. It’s summer, yet— it felt cold.

What is this ability…? Magic…? Is this a trap…?

It’s dangerous here. I can’t even see my own five fingers.

Thanks to my uniform’s built-in system, it starts to heat up from the inside, warming my body.

Suddenly, a strong wind blows from nowhere. A wind that was strong enough to make even me trip if not careful.

Summer heat, sudden coldness, and now a strong of gust wind…? What's wrong with the weather here?!

But it was thanks to the strong wind that the mists scatters in an instant— unveiling the view right in front of me.

"...Huh?"

The first thing I saw, was five supposedly strong-looking guys. They had dark brown blazer and a light blue tie— it seems they are C Class students and first years, just like me.

Strangely, they were huddling on each other with guns on their hands. And because their blazers are dark brown— so they look like sticks— a bundle of sticks.

It reminds me of a classic story in where ‘a stick can break easily, but not a bundle of them’.

Next, there are tons of spears impaled at the ground around them. It seems they were forced to huddle on each other because of those spears.

Lastly, those spears seem like they were made with ice.

So… those are icicle spears…?

Is she the one who made those—

PAK!

The moment I turn my head to find the girl, which is on the left side of my view— she had her right hand raised to her shoulder height, and snapped her fingers with a cold, shuddering look.

Not good…!

On vague impulse, I took a giant leap backwards.

The spears that were scattering around those five students— like seeds, where thorny ice vines sprouted from the spears and coiled them in an instant.

Ice flowers then buds from the vines and blooms into roses afterwards, sealing any spaces that was left around them, as if they were trapped in a box.

The small roses then fused together with each other and turns into a large ice rose.

Along with the ice vines around it, it’s like a work of art.

…It was so abrupt that I was stunned shock with my jaw dropping.

Those guys… they were frozen in that thing.

I immediately understood where did her confidence came from— this girl… she’s a frickin <Star-Revolution Generation>…!

Should I blame this haphazard situation on luck or bad luck? One of her type can easily crush one hundred powerless humans in an instant. Not to mention those five, though they are armed with guns, but she crushed them easily.

Okay, I know many might be curious about what is a <Star-Revolution Generation>, so allow me to take some time to explain. Everything starts from 25 years ago, so I will cut it short.

25 years ago was known as the year of calamity. This was the very year where the worst death had ever occurred, because 20% of the world's population had died. The cause of death was the mysterious 8 meteors that strike on different places.

It went through three stages.

The first stage is the impact it creates when it strikes the ground. Though many had already avoided it when the warning signal was on, there are still some who's unable to escape from it. Though, that's not the main reason for the mass massacre.

It was the second stage, the cause of it was from the enormous amount of energy released by the meteors. Nearly 20%, also almost 32 billion people had died, but that only applies to every race except humans. Death by scorching from fire, death by suffocating from drowning, death by frost from extreme cold, death by malnutrition absorbed by parasite plant, death by electrocution by lightning, death by petrification, death by slaughtered by vicious winds and death by hallucinations.

From it, the meteors were likely predicted to contain the elements of fire, water, ice, wood, lightning, earth, wind and light.

Lastly, the third stage, the danger zone. Though compared to the first and second stage, the third stage is harmless, but yet— many killed themselves, and humans were mainly involved in it for the sake of research. After the impact from the first stage, craters were created. No matter who, including humans, who steps into the crater or attempts to enter from above— within a certain range of a radius, they will be immediately perished to dust nonetheless, not a single speck of cell remains.

After a year, miraculously— someone is able to step inside the radius and take the meteor, one person each. Unexpectedly, they were granted with supernatural powers— based on the meteors` elements, of course. If you were asking why they know they were able to approach the meteor, and why they wouldn't perish in the dust— that's because they were guided by the 9th person, he's also the first one to obtain the supernatural power.

He had the darkness element.

So in total, nine elements.

Except the ninth person, these guys that possess supernatural power are able to ‘gift’ others. In other words, they were able to transfer some of their energy into others, giving them the supernatural powers. Greediness is not allowed to them, or rather, there are rules set by the meteors. It was said that they had a will of their own, anyways, those who are greedy will perish to dust, one person can only take one element.

Sooner or later, with their fame spreading throughout the world— and soon they were given a title, known as the <First Star-Revolution Generation> since meteors were commonly seen as stars, so it was named as such, and the revolution was for the name of the new supernatural power. Then those who were then ‘gifted’ by the <First Star-Revolution Generation> are known as the <Star-Revolution Generation>.

Then again, later then it was found out that the offspring of the <Star-Revolution Generation> inherited the supernatural power too. If it's the offspring of <Star-Revolution Generation> with two different elements, only either one element will be inherited— though there are some who took their child to the <First Star-Revolution Generation> to attempt for a second element, but in the end, their child was perished to dust, and their parents suffered from eternal remorse and regrets that can never be repaired.

Perhaps.

Perhaps that's why— all of the <First Star-Revolution Generation> vanished.

They disappeared after two years from the year of calamity, not leaving a single trace behind of their whereabouts. Till this very day, no one knows who and where they were. Though, there`s still quite a lot of <Star-Revolution Generation> remains— and they were everywhere. But still, they numbered around 20 thousand at most, and the chance of meeting them is even less than a percentage of 0.000000125.

Rumours say that if you ever met one in your life, this means you will be blessed with extreme luck. But rumours are just rumours— who knows?

By the way, don`t you find it strange to have nine <First Star-Revolution Generation> instead of eight? In the first place, there are only eight meteors— so where did the ninth one come from?

That remains a mystery.

But there's one thing for sure.

There's only one person in this world who`s a darkness element <First Star-Revolution Generation>.

Now then, back to the current situation.

“…Another one…” The girl mumbles.

As if not a single memory of me remains in her, she made an annoyed look and swayed her right hand upwards with her first three fingers— the thumb, fore, and middle finger as if it was the most natural thing to do.

“Whoa!?”

Just like that— a simple movement.

She summons waves of snow, like a tsunami— at least 4 metres high, hurling towards my direction.

So— this is a <Star-Revolution Generation>. They played their unique element as they please.

I was so shocked that my feet rooted to the ground, refusing to move.

But it only lasted for a second.

I had to move, I needed to.

There's no need to defend, this height and mass is more than enough to bury me twice, and jumping would've given her an opening to freeze me to a popsicle.

Then…

“Hah…!”

I stomped the ground with my right foot, turning my waist and shoulder with the perfect timing to launch my right arm— punching straight with a power like a catapult. No, compared to such would’ve downgraded my power. Let's just say… 10 times the power of a catapult.

POW!

A roaring voice generated from my blow.

I made myself a large hole in the centre of her snow-wave, and made my way through it safely, standing on the snow.

It may be powerful, but I forgot the cost of punching through her snow bare-handed.

“Ow…!”

Argh…! It's even colder than zero degree Celsius…!

My fist stings in pain and trembles from the coldness. It actually shivers so much that I can't even move my hand properly. There`s ice sticking to it, and it grows and spreads out— slowly covering my hand. Though I`ve never dealt with this before, but on first instinct— the best way to deal with this is to get rid of the ice first.

Thus, I quickly slap away the ice on my hand with my left, constantly tighten and relax my hand to warm it up.

The girl let out a cold sigh. It sounds like a fed-up sigh.

Flinched by it, I immediately raise my head to look at her.

“…Aren't you persistent…?”

“Persistent? What do you mean? You are the one attacking me all of the sudden!”

For some reason, her face twitched a little— she immediately narrowed her eyes.

“…so this is what you wanted…” She murmured coldly.

Then—

—she extends her right hand forth, pointing her three fingers at me. In that instant— cold air starts to gather around us, swirling, with both of us in between. Our surrounding temperature immediately dropped drastically in less than a second.

Looks like this is a special gesture for her to use her powers. I better be on guard whenever she does this. But still… Why is she attacking me all of the sudden? Even if she`s in a bad mood, there's no way she would attack a bystander that's just passing through. Let's calm down and think…

She was already attacking even before I jumped down, but even far before that— I don't think I did anything offensive to her. All I did was spoil her mood, making her jump down, and perhaps that's when those five dudes arrived and she needed to deal with them. Then I jumped down, those guys looked at me with a pathetic pleading look— oh.

So that was the reason?!

I raised both of my hands and yelled.

“H-Hold it! I'm not one of them!”

“…who cares.” She said arbitrarily with a cold look, then snapped her fingers.

Spears made from ice suddenly form around her, randomly floating in mid-air. Judging from it, there`s exactly 20 of it.

This girl— she intended to take me down since the beginning…! She's still interested in our duel and she's making this to her own advantage!

Among those twenty of it, three random spears slowly move next to her head, about her right shoulder. Its tip is pointing to my direction.

“…Pierce.” She whispers, and sways her hand in her special gesture.

“Urk…!”

The moment she swayed— the three spears earlier launched to me with a speed so fast that it's near to that of the speed of a bullet, as if she`s shooting a target. But if it's like this then why? Why did those guys earlier gather together? Won`t that will only make them a bigger target?

On first instinct, I tried to run to my left— but her first spear suddenly shifted its trajectory to my left, stabbing on the ground, preventing me from running away. As for her second spear, it stabbed onto the ground on my right just as I was about to move.

From that, I immediately understood why those guys cuddled together. It's not that they wanted to, it's because they had no choice but to do so. They aren't even allowed to run away.

All that's left, is her third spear that`s aiming straight on me— more specifically, my chest. Then again, the rest of the seventeen spears then followed behind the third spear.

Shit…!

I took a side step and bent my waist, moving my upper body away to the right and flexing my right hand, catching her spear.

O— OW…! COLD…! IT'S FREEZING! JUST HOW COLD ARE THESE THINGS!?

Compared to her snow-wave from earlier, her spear is at least several degrees much colder. It's so cold that my whole arm throbs from the sharp pain, it nearly takes my all just to prevent it from slipping off my hand. Enduring the pain, I overcame the power of her spear that`s like the power of a rocket— and gave it a spin with both my hands, deflecting the rest of her spears.

If it's just such a degree of pain… I can endure it.

However, I can't get used to the coldness. I can't feel anything from my arms. Fighting a long battle against her is a total disadvantage. I need to be careful.

Then, the girl lifted her hand.

I know this gesture. She's going to restrain me with her vines. Fine. Come at me with all you`ve got. I will make sure to break every vine you have.

“…Burst.”

She said coldly as she snapped her fingers.

“Huh— BUGARGH!!?”

An explosion.

The spear on my hands exploded, along with the others.

Forget about destroying it, I couldn't even defend against it.

A moment later, my world turned white. Up and down, left and right, front and back, the world was completely white before I realized the intense cold. This is the mist. This is the mist I came across earlier.

It came from the explosions of her spears.

I learned what it might feel like for my entire body to freeze.

I felt like a tub of water getting frozen to ice in a second.

It hurt.

My body hurts from head to toe, but my hands most of all— is shaking like it never has shaken before in its life.

It's frozen. I need to get rid of it.

I crushed it with a slam on my knee. Her ice crumbles.

If I stay here any longer— she would`ve sent me a temporary trip to the north side. There's no use to hesitate.

Thus, I took my hands up and charged out from the pool of white mist.

I lost sight of the girl.

There`s no sign of any attacks either.

“…annoying.”

With those words, I immediately faced the girl`s direction, where she's suddenly standing way behind me. She must have approached from the left when I charged out from the right.

“…penetrate.” She whispered, with her special gesture pointing down.

What is she going to do this time…?

There`s nothing around her. So I was stunned for a while.

My instincts kicked in.

Not even looking up, I took a small leap backwards. That's when a spear drops in front of me with a similar bullet-like speed from earlier, stabbing on the ground.

T-THAT WAS CLOSE…!

Realizing it came from above, I immediately looked up.

“……!”

One, two, three… okay, I don't know how many are there, but a lot of spears rained down. It wouldn't be exaggerated to say it's raining hails— but those are spears instead. There`s not even a small opening to let me escape unscathed.

Do you really need to go that far?

S-Stay calm. I need to stay calm.

There's no time.

I pulled out the spear that was stabbed on the ground, enduring the cold and pain as I held onto the spear, as if I'm clinging to it.

Though… I hope this spear is able to withstand my strength from breaking.

I then grabbed the tail of the spear.

“One Handed Spear Arts— Swing!”

It's nothing, really. I merely swung the spear from left to right as I pointed it upwards, as hard as I could. As for how strong that one swing is, it generated more than enough force, enough shockwave to scatter most of the spears above me, her spears then fell everywhere.

Good. Her spear survived.

If she wants it, her spears now could explode anytime under her command, or even grows to a spike vines forest. I don't know what she still has up in her sleeves, but I bet she still had tons of it. She's just that dangerous.

As I thought that, I moved away from most of her spear`s explosion range, as I kept up my guard.

“…Burst.” She whispers.

Though she didn`t snap her fingers this time, I played it safe and threw away the spear on my hand, tossing it aside.

Then— this time, every spears exploded, leaving ice roses behind on every spears. It's like a garden of ice roses.

But yet— because I had the chance to throw back her spear back to her, but I didn`t. It stimulated her, causing her to be even more furious than just now.

…Crap.

I`m already not a match for her. I knew that already.

At this rate, I would be late.