Shinji's POV.
I just finished my match. It was rather easy compared to my match with Sato in the academy's selection match. I just dodged a couple of water shots, while closing the distance for a point-blank airburst and a kick between the legs for good measure.
The judge gave me a disapproving look, but without these kinds of cheap shots I would never have survived the mad professors' combat lessons.
After my match was over, I went to see Kenji's match alongside Aiko. We were standing outside the arena looking in through the gridded cage as we watched the cage match between a swordman with a burning sword and a brawler with some very cute pink gloves.
"Why did you decorate the gloves like that?" I asked Aiko after seeing Kenji weald a pair of gauntlets covered in pink flowers and glitter.
"So, they would match with the name!"
The swordsman was trying to cut Kenji, but every time he swung his blade, he would deflect it using the reinforced metal plating on the back of the gloves, before doing a palm strike while trying and failing to activate some enchantments on the palms of his hands. This repeated a number of times when eventually he got the enchantments to work, and the swordsman was electrocuted.
"THE WINNER IS ENCHANTER AIKO FOR HER ENCHANTED: PINK FLOWER GAUNTLETS!" The judge announced.
"Hey Aiko! What the hell! These gauntlets are buggy as hell! It's a miracle I managed to win in these!" Kenji said as he approached us with a grumpy expression.
"Don't be so glum Kenji! You won, didn't you?" I said, trying to cheer him up a bit, but it only made things worse.
"BARELY! THESE THINGS ONLY WORK 1 OUT OF 10 TIMES AND EVERY TIME IT FAILS IT SENDS A JOLT DOWN MY ARM WHICH LEFT AN OPENING! IF NOT FOR THE QUICK REFLEXES I BUILT UP FROM THE BOSS'S COMBAT TRAINING I WOULD HAVE BEEN SKEWERED!"
"Speaking of skewers! I hear there are some food stalls right outside the colosseum! You guys want to go buy some?" I said, trying to change the subject.
"Sure, let's go."
"HEY! DON'T IGNORE ME! I'M NOT DONE TALKING ABOUT THIS! ALSO, I WANT EXTRA MEAT ON MINE!"
And so, we left the arena with a yelling Kenji in the background chasing after us.
…
A few hours later, we wandered through the food market chatting while munching on some meat skewers.
"So, you guy's still want to join the boss after Walpurgisnacht?"
"Yup! Come to think of it, you never mentioned why you wanted to go."
"Ah! Well, it's just a family issue." I spoke.
"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Aiko said, while the two of them gave me a complicated look.
"No, its fine. It's just-!" As I mustered up my resolve to voice my issues, I spotted someone I never wanted to run into again in the worst possible place he could be.
"Hey! Shinji? You, okay?"
"Yoho!" Aiko said as she waved her hand in front of my stunned face.
I couldn't speak for fear of grabbing his attention, so I just pointed at a food stall. The name written on the stall was 'Sun & Son's Food Emporium!' And the person running the grill was none other than…
"BOSS!" Kenji yelled as he approached the counter to look at the mad professor running the grill of a very unpopular food stall.
"HELLO THERE, MY GOOD SIR, AND WELCOME TO THE SUN AND SON'S FOOD EMPORIUM!" Suddenly a small child in a jester's outfit and chessboard-patterned apron popped out of nowhere and started introducing the shop and menu.
While the jester was making a fuss over some burgers, I tried to slip away when I suddenly bumped into someone and fell backwards. It was a very tall and scary looking elf with black hair and green eyes.
"Hey, Crybaby! Bring those 2 brats over here! Dinners on me tonight!"
It was on this day that these foolish classmates of mine learned a valuable lesson. 'If you see a Sun cooking, you don't go looking!'