Kuoh Academy

[Bloodedge]

'That's what I should be striving for? His kind of power?' Takumi thought. To achieve such a goal, he felt would be an arduous task, but having that goal... was definitely worthwhile. From his understanding, the individual before him was expected to be second only to Eira herself. If he could achieve such strength, he could be useful without a question. "Boost!" his Sacred Gear spoke again. 'Another double, right? I feel like I'll need that. I wish I could know if I had enough strength to take him on safely,' he mused. Either way, he'd been given permission to use this "promotion" ability of his Evil Piece. "Promotion... Queen," he said, feeling within himself that the method of doing this was akin to declaring a Pawn promotion in a true Chess game. He did indeed feel the evolution within himself. He felt more powerful in many ways, and by different means than his Sacred Gear. With this newfound power, he decided it was now or never. Takumi charged toward the floating Izuna, aiming to punch him in the torso with a highly-amplified left straight. Izuna smiled throughout the boy's movements, and didn't move at all.

"Oh! I'm also a Kitsune, if ya' didn't notice!" Izuna chose to say as Takumi's fist connected with - or rather, passed through - his torso. The image of Izuna that had been attacked was nothing more than an illusion spawned by his natural abilities. The true Izuna was overhead all along, and became visible as his illusion faded. "Did you think I was just gonna let you hit me with that!? That'd be stupid! You're gonna need magic to hit me," Izuna said, looking as if he had something very specific in mind. He would not be properly fighting Takumi in this training, it seemed, but instead acting as a guide toward a certain end. What that end would be, was entirely up to the Pawn of the peerage. "Magic... How do I use magic?"

[Apollymi]

'Yare yare, tricky little fox boy~' thought Eira as she watched as Izuna used an illusion to stop himself from taking a direct hit from Takumi. Of course, she generally expected such a thing, Izuna could fight with his fists, but his greatest strength was something else entirely. A bit of a chuckle came from her as she wondered what Takumi would decide to do in order to get what he wanted from this situation. What came with his decision for a promotion was Queen. Of course, that was probably one of the best uses of his ability to promote. And after he found himself unable to connect with Izuna he asked about magic. 'Atta boy~' she thought. It made her wonder what Izuna would say, she had no intention of speaking and though a few of her peerage could explain magic to him, it seemed it would be best of Izuna did so himself, since he was teaching this boy the fun of Queen Piece abilities.

[Bloodedge]

"It's easy. You just kinda... do stuff," Izuna said. Now that he thought about it, perhaps he wasn't the best for explaining such a thing. As a Kitsune, he'd always owned the natural ability to use magic, even long before becoming a Devil. This explanation would be a challenging one indeed. "Well... I guess it's another willpower thing. You're a Devil, so you could focus your Demonic Power to cast spells, but... you might be able to do something through that Sacred Gear of yours," he continued, as his eyes narrowed once more. The smile on his face was a knowing one, even though he only had a strong hunch to go by. No matter the case, Takumi's focus was on his Sacred Gear.

"Time's up!" With this from Izuna, the Devil Kitsune descended from above with his right hand clad in fox fire. His announcement alerted Takumi to the incoming attack, allowing the Pawn to jump away before Izuna's hand slammed into the ground where Takumi once stood, tearing asunder the earth across a five meter radius. Apparently, few punches were being held here. Izuna immediately hopped out of the crater he'd made, charging toward Takumi with his left hand using the same magic. "Speed boost feels good, huh? You're still gonna need to do more than dodge me. I won't miss if I'm trying~" the elder Devil said just before the next ten second mark of Takumi's Twice Critical. "Boost!"

[Apollymi]

Eira was appreciating the teaching methods of Izuna, of course this soon became a moment in which the normally regal woman palmed her own face. 'Ugh, still doesn't know how to explain things... I suppose I should just have Miyuki explain proper magic to him later...' she thought making a note of the fact that this was something the young man would need eventually. Moving right along, there was much movement going on below as Izuna showcased his ability to use multiple different aspects of his piece. A grin crossed the face of Eira, she always appreciated the young man's abilities, and it was more than obvious why as this whole thing happened. Curiously enough, there was another boost occurring for Takumi as well. It made Eira curious about how many of them would occur.

[Bloodedge]

"I guess you mean I can't dodge the next one," Takumi replied. A fanged grin was upon Izuna's visage as he heard this, basically confirming the other lad's assumption. Remembering his spar with Maiko, and thinking he now had a much greater quantity of strength to back his defenses, Takumi repeated his efforts from that battle. His hands went out to capture Izuna's fist before it struck him properly, and with the power of his Queen Promotion and third Twice Critical boost combined, he was able to hold on to theother male's hand. "That's right. You must've really wanted that Rook strength after all. It's all based on what you want, so... what do you want now?" Izuna asked. When Takumi thought about this, he could only come to one conclusion. This entire match was predicated upon the idea of him striving to be like Izuna, so that became his prime desire. Suddenly, the fire and lightning around Izuna's arm began flowing into the gem on Takumi's gauntlet, as the gem glowed a bright green. "Fox Fire Power is Taken!" the Sacred Gear said, much to the surprise of both Takumi and Izuna. "What the hell?" asked Takumi. To this, Izuna only continued to grin. The low-coverage gauntlet changed its form to cover Takumi's entire hand and forearm with a new rocky red design, which constantly produced an odd flame with electric properties.

[Apollymi]

If Youmu was on the edge of her seat waiting for something to change, Eira was doing the same thing. In fact, the whole body of their leader had shifted to the edge of her seat as she watched the transformation of the gear on the boy's arm, as it took the abilities of Izuna's Fox Fire. 'That can't be Twice Critical!' was the thought that Eira had, and there but few things it could be as far as she was concerned. Youmu on the other hand had a similar thought, but her face and body showed nothing but apathy, 'Definitely not Twice Critical... what kind of soul is that?' she wondered about the spirit attached to the gear. It was almost stretched out enough that she could make it out, but it was still large enough that she couldn't quite see clearly enough its defining features. Whatever the case, both combatants seemed very surprised. Eira had a lot to consider now as with such an ability her Pawn would come off as easily underestimating and very surprising. 'Sugei, he would make a very powerful statement,' she thought as she considered all the things the young male had recently done. Surprisingly enough, much like what had gone on between Youmu and Maiko as the latter had less battle experience overall, she was willing to let the trainer mostly decide when their match up would be over.

[Bloodedge]

"Sugei, sugei! You stole my fire!" Izuna chanted. From this short distance, he could feel a very intimidating aura from whatever was inside Takumi's Sacred Gear. It even made him want to retreat, but he couldn't quite do that. After all... this was for the new Devil's development. Izuna's fist was still in the now gauntlet-clad hand of Takumi, and the electrified flames did not bother him, but there was something more to come...

"Flame Boost!" Not only was this the fourth increase in Takumi's power, but the boost was focused mainly through the flames. A massive burst of Takumi's Fox Fire copy exploded from the gauntlet, forcing Izuna away by a distance equivalent to the earlier crater's diameter. In fact, Izuna would have landed in that very crater, had he been touching the ground at all. 'That isn't four boosts, and that isn't supposed to work like that. This is awesome!' Izuna thought. His tail then spun around behind him, leaving a total of nine flares in a circle at his rear. He then snapped the fingers of his right hand, leading the action into a point toward Takumi. This willed the flames in series toward the other male. 'He doesn't just punch with it? Guess I should have figured,' was Takumi's first mental reaction to this. Either way, this was something he had to deal with. He figured since his arm was now covered in a similar fire to what Izuna produced, he would be able to contact these attacks without worry. While moving forward, he swiped at the flames to disperse them with his Sacred Gear, but there was too much distance for him to encroach upon Izuna without fear of an attack he couldn't truly deal with. He needed something more than what he'd been using. As he swatted the ninth flame projectile, Takumi envisioned a ranged attack for himself, somewhere between what his last boost had done, and what Izuna had just thrown his way. Since he was told to focus on his Sacred Gear, he did exactly that. The flames of his Sacred Gear collected in the palm of his hand, and filled with lightning before being raised overhead to grow to the size of a beach ball. Once this was done, Takumi brought it crashing down toward Izuna, where it would grow in size even more, until it absolutely filled the crater below, and engulfed Izuna with burning fire and cackling electricity all at once.

[Apollymi]

Izuna still seemed as amused as ever, but both Youmu and Eira were both seemingly stunned though for very different reasons. Youmu finally caught a glimpse of the fullness of this spirit within the gauntlet of Takumi's Sacred Gear, and in so doing realized what kind of spirit it had to be. She fell off the arm of the chair at the realization but didn't say a word. Youmu's falling shifted Eira's attention slightly. "I didn't realize you were so into spectating," mentioned the crimson haired woman which only made Youmu float back up to her perch without so much as a change in her affectation. "Iie, I just... saw something, you pick interesting people, Buchou..." she said calmly. As the lightning and fire overtook Izuna Eira could be nothing more than stunned. 'That's too much for a four times boost... I wonder...' she was mentally preparing for the idea that her newest addition would be one she could indeed enjoy for quite some time. Of course, she was more stunned by his rapid development than anything else.

[Bloodedge]

"Whew! That would have hurt if it hit!" said Izuna, who'd appeared overhead once more. Even though he truly would have been in danger if he'd taken that attack without defending, his illusions had proven useful yet again. Takumi had been keeping count, though. If he could just get a bit stronger, he could focus on this attack again, and perhaps accomplish something. A face-off occurred between Izuna and himself, with the former simply waiting to see what would come next. After another ten seconds, what came... was disappointment. "Burst!" spoke the Sacred Gear. Takumi's gauntlet returned to its normal state, and all of his power drained from him suddenly, leaving him with buckling knees that nearly brought him all the way to the ground. "Aaand pop! Looks like four and that spell are the limit. Nice spell use, though. Ryuu-chan, see that? He thinks you're super cute after all!" he said, not bothering to mention how he'd come to this conclusion right away.

[Apollymi]

It seemed that this match was being decided. And though Takumi put up a valiant effort, Izuna's experience won out. But that was sort of expected the entire way around, even so, he showed amazing progress and natural talent, a large smile appeared on Eira's face and she might have even opened her mouth to speak on what she was thinking. But... a wayward comment from her Queen put her young female Bishop on the spot instead, Miyuki, who'd at some point taken up a seat right to the left of Eira's legs found herself blushing intensely. Strangely enough this blush again, was quite blue in color, instead of a normal shade like red. "Izu-senpai, you're still being a meanie. Don't say things like that..." she said as she cradled herself and tried to shield that still blushing face of hers. Of course, Youmu found this entire situation to be funny and managed to chuckle before turning it into a cough, after all, she had a very solid look to uphold as a stoic figure. Eira's brows drew together, but she said nothing. If she felt any particular way about the idea that Takumi might like Miyuki she'd say nothing about it, though she wouldn't really question it either, knowing that Izuna knew a lot more about people than he typically mentioned. She moved right along with the only outward shift to be her arms crossing under her chest, which was her only major sign of discomfort in any way. "Arigatou na, Izuna, Takumi. I understand what I need to. I'll let everyone know tomorrow afternoon how I am building the team for the Rating Game," Eira mentioned. Of course there were several different possibilities and she'd run through them all, perhaps in a bath.

[Bloodedge]

"Whaaat, it's true!" Izuna added to the clause he'd shared with Miyuki. "I felt it when you were rubbing yourself all over his hand. Who knew the whole senpai-kohai thing would work out so quick!" he teased. Of course there was more than this simple matter, but Izuna thought to avoid sharing anything more than what he had for the moment. He did, however, look toward Eira with narrow eyes and a sly grin, only for a brief moment. "Loli-boobs are in the lead. What will happen next? Find out next time, ladies and gents!" As these words were spoken, Izuna picked up the nearly-unconscious Takumi and returned to the observation deck inhabited by the others.

[Apollymi]

"I didn't do any such thing you pushed me!" the girl mentioned seeming to not like how this whole situation was working out. Of course, she didn't blame Takumi for any of this at all, as far as she was concerned it was their devilish fox Queen's fault. The last of Izuna's commentary got him a glance filled with rage and narrow eyes from Eira, but she had nothing directly to say about the matter which was most unusual. As it stood she removed herself from her secondary throne. Placing a gentle hand against the top of Miyuki's head and getting a slight chill from it. "Don't let Izuna's teasing get to you..." she mentioned to the girl who smiled up at her and nodded, still a faint blue blush was upon her face. "When Hiroki wakes up, have him look at everyone... I am gonna go have a bath and think about some things," said Eira having become rather suddenly somber, but the reason why would be left unknown. "You all don't have any duties tonight, rest up... tomorrow's a busy day..." she mused leaving the group as a whole. The abruptness of her leave caused more than a few raised eyebrows among her peerage, but then again, most had no idea about the things presently running through the mind of their leader. The crimson haired woman was prone to hiding her own problems to take care of everyone else's. She'd leave almost immediately heading to the place she presently called home, to enjoy a hot bath in her lonely apartment. This would leave the group some time to themselves without Eira present, likely until the next day.

[Bloodedge]

"It's not teasing if it's truth. The blush says it goes both ways, too," he continued. Izuna's senses never lied, and he had in fact gotten this sensation from Takumi's end during the earlier interaction with Miyuki. This, of course, was only one of many things he'd felt from the lad, but he was having fun poking at a single thing right now. "Ryuu-chan, are you some kind of senpaicon or something? Y'know he had a weird reaction when you said senpai earlier!" Izuna was relentless in his efforts, which were accompanied by the creation of a clone of himself. The true Izuna continued to hover around Miyuki and the fallen Takumi, while the clone took a side to Youmu. Both versions watched as Eira took her leave, and the copy looked toward Youmu when the crimson-haired lass was gone. "She's totally jealous."

[Apollymi]

"That... well... isn't fair!" this was all Miyuki could say. She couldn't say she liked Takumi or not, she barely knew him, she was just overtly friendly and happy not to be the freshest member in their group anymore. It was hardly like some declaration that she had a thing for her seniors, obviously it wasn't such a thing in mind. Well, not consciously anyways, moving right along there was a clone of Izuna sitting opposite of Youmu who thought about the Izuna's statement about the state of envy that their leader possessed. "Well, no more than usual. But her mood's been off all day... like she's been thinking really hard, it's unlike her to walk around not saying anything... less like her to let us have off two days in a row, regardless of the potential for a Rating Game," said the rather apathetic girl. The fact that their leader had abruptly left them, let her know there was more to it than any simple show of emotion. But again, Youmu wasn't the type to question it while the answer wasn't obvious. "If Buchou is upset, shouldn't we try to cheer her up?" mentioned Miyuki who seemed a bit more concerned than Youmu could manage to look. She'd noticed that their leader had been a bit more standoffish than normal, but that could have been anything.

[Bloodedge]

The original Izuna had become invested in a bit of banter with the female Bishop of the peerage, who insisted that what he said simply wasn't fair. Izuna would argue this, of course; it was just too entertaining to continue prodding the girl. "It's just fair warning! Eventually, you're gonna have to deal with a proposal and babies! You'll thank me for letting you know ahead of time then." The Queen of Eira's peerage leaned forward, wearing a grin commonly found upon his face during these instigating moments of his. Overall, these were the fun times he often sought. He'd never had the chance to do this sort of thing within the peerage, as Hiroki did not share Takumi's apparently hidden perversions. When the other conscious members spoke of Eira's mental state, Izuna's expression turned flat. He was well aware of the situation she was now faced with, and though he felt negatively about it, he did not intend to share any information until Eira herself was ready to do so. "Iie. Just leave her alone for now. She'll come around tomorrow when we win that Rating Game. Focus everything you've got on that."