Alexis regains her consciousness in Hilda’s medical room, surrounded by Shiryu, Sumiko, Sumihara, and Hilda. Seeing that she was confused, Shiryu explained to her that she passed out after her match ended in a draw. Alexis was shocked to hear that, as she was confident that she had won. “Yeah, well you should see the other guy. He lost his arm!” Shiryu tries to mockingly make light of the situation.
Despite being assured by Sumiko that Alexis turned out fine, Hilda felt the need to protest. “No! You are not Ok! Had Lady Sumiko not brought you here, you would have died!” Alexis was stunned. Why would her rival in love go through the trouble of saving her? She had to find out why. But Sumiko only just smiled at her and stated that she was a nice person, and that Shiryu really cares about her, despite everything that’s happened. Sumiko’s words left Shiryu feeling embarrassed, knowing that his feelings for Alexis were obvious even when trying to hide them.
The moment of reunion ends when Viktor walks into the room. Shiryu approaches him, maintaining a wide smile and open arms. “We were just talking about you! Great performance.” Viktor just stands there. Scowling at the emperor. “You said that I wouldn’t get hurt.” He lifts his arm, or rather what’s left of it, to help with his argument. Shiryu seems displeased that Viktor is angry at him. “What I said was that you probably wouldn’t be hurt that much.” As expected, Shiryu purposefully set the match for Viktor and Alexis. While in his eyes, Viktor doesn’t have what it takes to be an emperor, he’s also the closest beyond anyone else in terms of raw strength and ability. “Come find me once Hilda checks you out. I’ll see what I can do about that arm.” Before heading out, Shiryu leaves Alexis with this message: “You passed. Once you’ve healed up, Todo will train you and strengthen your durability.”
Now that Alexis has had her match, the tournament moves onto the semi-finals. The final three contestants left are Shiro, Hiro, and Sarena. This match will determine whether or not Sarena or Shiro will make it to the final match against Hiro. The crowd is excited. Afterall, these three students are now considered the new apprentices of the three emperors, regardless of who wins or loses. Sarena, is a student who specializes in speed. She has quick reflexes and is very agile, but her attack power seems to be on the lower end. Her opponent, Shiro, specializes in defense. It’s unknown how durable he truly is, but his performance speaks for itself.
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The two contestants walk onto the newly repaired arena. Shiro goaded his opponent. “You know, you seem to be pretty strong for a girl. However, you will never overpower my ultimate defense.” This causes Sarena to charge at him at full speed. But Shiro easily blocked her strike. She then began to blitz him, but like all other strikes, Shiro blocked them. Seeing as how Shiro blocked all of her attacks, he thinks that he has it all figured out. “I think that I have you all figured out now. You’re all speed, but that’s it. You have no chance at winning.” Sarena thinks differently, however. “Don’t be ridiculous! You’re not strong either, just unbelievably tanky.” But suddenly, she kneels down and begins to cough up blood. Her vision also begins to blur. Shiro bursts into laughter as his hypothesis was correct. But this isn’t the only shocking occurrence.
Over in the spectator booth, Sumiko is amazed at what she is seeing. What’s more amazing than the fact that she is enjoying the fight, is that she can actually tell what is going on. She explains to her sister that Shiro is using the same technique that Viktor used against Alexis, in order to counter Sarena’s speed. Obviously, the emperors are able to keep up with Sarena’s fast movement. But regular people, like Sumiko and Sumihara, are thought to be unable to perceive what’s going on. Such an accomplishment was nothing for her, as she was able to track even the emperors’ battles in the last tournament. In Todo’s mind, Sumiko is an important asset to Shiryu, even when considering her fragile frame.
As for Sarena, things aren’t looking good for her. She’s doubting her own skill. (“He shouldn’t be able to read me like this. My speed should have been enough to overpower him!”) Unfortunately, the young candidate does not realize her own self destruction. Shiro decides to take the time to give Sarena a lecture on the laws of physics, as this was her major flaw. Her body begins to profusely bleed, and could hardly maintain her balance. Exhausted as she is, Sarena can’t give up. Afterall, she has yet to land a strike on him. She tries to gather her energy in order to launch a final attack. But it was too late for her. Shiro displays his own speed, and gets a clean hit on her, leaving her laying on the ground as he walks away the victor.
“WORDS CAN’T EVEN DESCRIBE WHAT WE JUST WITNESSED!! BUT IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THE WINNER OF THIS MATCH IS SHIRO MASA!!”
Now that the final match is approaching, Shiryu finally joins the spectator seat. Nothing else concerned him as what’s important is the finalist. For the other two emperors, it was decided that Sarena would go to Ashio, once she recovered. Shiryu was quickly brought up to speed about the match, and Sumiko’s impressive observational abilities. But it seemed that he already knew about it, which surprised everyone else. As he sits down, the two final fighters stand opposite from each other in order to reach the conclusion of the tournament. For whoever wins this, would be the apprentice of none other than Shiryu himself.
