The goal ahead

   The new world tournament was one unique tournament. Despite the fact that it was held by a school and it's participants were staff and students, it still managed to draw worldwide attention. One contributing factor to this could be that the Shin-sekai academy was a prestigious school and was attended by the children of many of the world's elites but the major factor was that it proved to be more entertaining than many others in the world.

   The structure of the tournament was divided. The teachers' tournament took place first then the students' came after. After winners had been decided from both sides, the two winners would then have a face off.

   The winner of the previous teacher's tournament was Fuji Waramaki who had remained undefeated for five years. He also won all the face-offs with the student champions. 

   The teachers tournament was full of old faces and the only two new faces in the tournament were Orie and Natsumi. Not many expected a different result from the teachers tournament as much as they did from the students' tournament.

   The reigning champion of the students' tournament was Fuji Anato. In case you don't remember him, he was the guy that bullied Marie Rosewell a while back. He was a two-time champion and that meant that he won the tournament in first and second year and was aiming for his third win. He was also aiming to finally defeat his father in the teacher student face-off.

   The most promising new faces included Mia who's ability was termed difficult to deal with, Souma Fubuki who was the young master of the house of Fubuki and also Natsumi's younger brother, and Yamato who didn't participate in the last tournament because he was working overtime. Shiro didn't make the official list because despite the rumors about him, no one in the school with the exception of his close friends had actually seen him fight.

   Though unofficial, the two that were tagged the least promising were Andrew and Marie Rosewell. Andrew's case was that he got beaten badly in his first qualifying match of the previous tournament and didn't recover until it was over. His opponent was the reigning champion but still....

   Marie's case was that everyone knew that she had not yet shown any sign of manifesting new powers. It was not against tournament rules to participate without any powers but it was basically suicide. Despite all these she applied. There were those who suspected that she had something up her sleeve but that thought was discouraged after news came out that her family tried to pull strings to force her out of the tournament. There were many speculations surrounding her participation but the truth was that no one knew what Marie was up to except from her.

   Throughout the preparations, the mood was different; it felt as if the sky had dimmed over the entire island. Everyone was engrossed in honing their skills in time for the upcoming challenges and focusing on their victory strategies. 

   There were those training their bodies, those practicing their moves, those gathering information and those who seemed to not be bothered about any of it.

   While all of the school was busy preparing for what was to come, Shiro decided to use this period as a time to rest from all the previous stress. His daily activities were to wake up, get breakfast, sleep, wake up, get lunch at Tanaka's, sleep, wake up, get dinner, watch a movie, sleep. Anyone that saw him would think he participating in the tournament as spectator.

   Throughout this period, the hearts of many were filled with anticipation, and it remained that way till the day finally arrived; the first day of the tournament.

   SHIN SEKAI SECRET: Dave was banned from participating in the new world tournament. He was labeled too dangerous which came as a surprise to everyone that knew him at the time.