the crowd's gaze suddenly turned to Nico, who was sitting on the ground at that time. before he seemed to be on the receiving end of an array of attacks, but the same person is sitting on the floor grinning. ken who hadn't noticed earlier caught sight and questioned him.
"Why are you acting all high and mighty now..."
"Because I just figured out a way to beat you"
"Oh..."
ken didn't let him react as he swung his feet to attack. Nico dodged beautifully like someone who read the attack and sprung to his feet. ken didn't give Nico space to attack as he repeatedly landed blows intending to wear down Nico over time given his lack of stamina. Despite that, Nico managed to block all the attacks thrown at him while trying to prevent a counter. as time progressed, Nico's lack of stamina caught up to him and ken successfully landed a clean hit on Nico, bringing him to his knees.
huh...it wasn't activated yet?
while Nico discussed with the system, ken and the crowd taunted him
"Get up now, where's that strength you were showing earlier"
Nico cleared his throat and rose to his feet once more
"You were saying...."
ken snapped and rushed to finish him with a final strike, but Nico suddenly disappeared erasing his presence from the arena
"Huh..."
while ken tried to find him, he suddenly appeared behind him and stamped, pushing ken further away from him before feeling a sharp pain on his legs. He didn't realize early that Nico had stabbed him in the leg, which was strictly prohibited in duels. but because no one saw it, they wouldn't believe a thing he says as they would take it as an excuse to disqualify ken
"he's done for..."
before ken could realize, Nico's hand, probably crowded by anger, moved like a bullet tearing through space with incredible speed and crashed into ken's face. The impact shattered most of the bones in his right hand while dealing sufficient damage to ken, knocking him out of the ring.
"What..."
The crowd was left speechless as Nico dropped to his knees, while holding his arm that was clearly broken. The student council members turned and exited the building while discussing further measures given the unexpected outcome of the match. While they continued to discuss, Andrew Diaz was the first to end the conference call. After all, the match had ended with Nico taking an unexpected win over ken while sustaining injuries of his own. Davi wanted to go and congratulate Nico on his victory, but a girl intercepted his path.
"Mr. Davi... you're needed."
"Right now...."
"it's from union"
Davi turned and left but he directed students to take Nico and ken to the hospital
****
Nico woke up with a start, while holding his right hand that was broken. He now seemed to be in pain now that the adrenaline was gone. He turned to his side and saw ken looking at him, much to his surprise since he didn't realize that they had been put in the same room.
Unlike the previous enmity they had between themselves, they became friendly to each other and talked about themselves while trying to wile away time. While they waited, Davi barged into the room with a basket of fruits and cake to cheer ken up and congratulate Nico on his victory. After Davi walked in, lily followed behind him and entered the room. Without saying a word, she picked a chair close to Nico and sat there
"Oh…h-hey there…"
Lily simply nodded without saying anything
"Yo Nico… oh Davi, you're here"
White entered the room after lily and met Davi inside, talking to ken and Nico. The two of them glanced at each other before white offered to leave the room. White remembered Davi's request not to tell Nico about the assassination attempt for now while wondering what he had in mind to tell him when the time comes
"I'll be going Nico…catch you later"
White waved lily and exited the room seconds later leaving them inside.
"Before anything, I would like to pose a few questions…first; how did you find out about the test?"
"White told me"
"Second; do you know Andrew Diaz?"
"Not really…"
Nico glanced to lily's side to confirm that he had made the right answer and she nodded
"Finally…what would you do if he turned out to be a villain?"
"Simple…run"
"What if lily is targeted during the test and we have to go save her…"
Nico sat up before answering
"If it comes to that, then I'll fight"
"Even if he's strong"
"I'll manage… wait how strong is he?"
"he's stronger than me"
"I'm screwed…"
Ken couldn't hold his laughter in and let it all out, annoying Nico in the process. Nico stood up from his bed and went straight to the basket of fruits brought for ken.
"I'll be taking this…"
"Hey…stop!"
Ken followed him while Davi exited the room, leaving lily inside
"Hey, before I forget, Nico…there's something I'll tell you once you get better"
Lily stood up without saying a word and left the room without saying a word, leaving the two patients inside
"Hey Nico, is she your girlfriend?"
"huh"
"I mean she always beside you…"
"Huh…are you blind, she's always with Davi…and you're asking me such a question"
"it's pretty normal for her to be with Davi, I mean they're siblings"
"For real…"
"Yeah, I taught you knew"
White and sky rushed into the room minutes later. This time, sylphia were with them and she was holding onto white's arm, but when she saw Nico, she removed it like she didn't want him to know
"Nico…someone's here to see you"