Contracts and Familiars

Mock Battle II

The Storm magic around the girl is volatile, uncontrolled.

Tsuna glanced at Natsu, the small lion taking his stance right beside him. For a moment, Tsuna thought about how different this Natsu was compared to his Natsu.

His Natsu wouldn't even growl at someone who insulted Tsuna. Instead, he would hide further behind Tsuna. Unless it was a battle.

Though, Tsuna is sure both iterations wouldn't hesitate to roar at the other person as long as Tsuna said so. For his Natsu's cowardice, he was just like a jealous dragon once someone hurts him or any of his famiglia.

Tsuna snapped out of his thoughts when the presence of Storm magic disappeared completely. A compressed ball of Storm magic is aimed at him, and Tsuna did not need his inuition to figure out that if he gets hit with that, then he'd simply be a pile of red chunks and liquid.

He doesn't know if testing the effectiveness of that move against this one would be worth it. After all, he had only just... revived and it would break Nana's heart if he, or 'this' Tsuna, died for real this time. Still, if the reactions of his peers and teachers were trustworthy, Natsu is strong enough to be able to weather the Storm.

It only takes a beat.

---

It only takes a beat.

And then the ball might as well be a bullet with how fast it is heading towards the boy. An oversized bullet. Truly worthy of fantasy stories with different magic systems than their own.

Some people were weird like that. You already have a world full of magic, and instead of being content with it, you create another world full of magic. Yet the magic is different, distinct from their own brand of magic, and if he remembered it right, these stories often influence many Contractors to experiment with magic.

Hm. Maybe this compressed ball of Storm magic is influenced by those stories.

Maybe. For all he knows, it was actually inspired by another Contractor. That tends to happen a lot when arena battles are publicized and what not.

"He's done for," he hears his friend mutter as their vision of the battlefield is obscured by smoke.

He smiled, his intuition nudging him, whispering to him, saying--

"I wouldn't write him off that easily yet, Hayato."

---

Smoke covers the view of the battle arena.

If one was truly as smart as they believed, then it would be obvious to them that the Storm bullet did not do what it was intended to do. In this case, it was to make Tsuna unrecognizable and most people will fail assembling whatever remained of him to resemble the original.

Tsuna winced. Sometimes, he wished his mind would stop reaching into gruesome imagery.

He needed something to do to get that mental image out of his head. Being able to imagine your hypothetical demise so clearly comes with having died once-- twice if you consider this body's death... wait, thrice when you consider the Future-that-will-never-be Tsuna's death. Well, that, and being a mafia don in the previous life does invite such morbid sceneries.

He could hear footsteps, rushing at his direction. It seemed that his opponent was as aware of his survival as he was of his. Good. It's nice to meet an opponent who doesn't gloat their victory too early.

Unwilling to stand still and allow the barrage to come to him, Tsuna crouched low before speeding towards a different direction.

Once he was at his desired spot, Tsuna changed course and dashed at his opponent.