Chapter 5: Yuri vs. Filia

Chapter 5:
Yuri vs. Filia

 

“BACK ON IT AGAIN today, Filia?”

“Sorry, but yes, I’ll be busy today too. Rather, I’ll be busy the entire time over the next three days until it’s time for our fight. I’m going through intensive training, after all. So I can win.”

It had been four days since my duel with Ashley. Filia, as usual of late, had been off doing her own thing.

I didn’t know what had happened that night, but I did know that Filia and I would be fighting. Until we did, Filia said, she was going to do some personalized intensive training. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to fight Filia, but I didn’t really wanna accept requests by myself. Most A-Rank requests weren’t just something you could knock out in one day and come back, after all.

I’d thought about training in the Demon Forest, the only place nearby that really worked for that kind of thing, but apparently Filia and Ashley were already using it as their spot. It’d be awkward if I bumped into them there, so…nah. Normally, I would’ve considered going on a long trip or something, but if I went too far away from Filia, there was always the off chance she could be kidnapped, and then how could I do anything to stop it? It wasn’t super likely, but better safe than sorry.

“Huh? Is something the matter?” asked Filia.

Perhaps I’d been staring at her too much, because Filia tilted her head and looked puzzled. Her long silver hair swayed about, gently pulled by gravity.

“Nothin’…you go on ahead.”

“Excellent. Well, I’m off!”

I didn’t say I was worried—I could tell from the look in her eye that I’d get teased for it. I just watched her go in silence.

“Well, guess I’ll start training.” There were still lots of things to do even without accepting any requests. I pounded my fists together with a loud crack and put on a bold smile.

Several hours later, I was working out alone in the quiet room, sunlight streaming in. To other people, it might have looked like I wasn’t really doing anything, but I was gushing sweat like a waterfall. This training was very intense. What I was doing was called an “air chair,” but it wasn’t just a simple “air chair.” No, I was basically floating in the air from a seated position.

I was pushing my body into the air by moving my legs so fast that you couldn’t even see an afterimage. To stop myself from spinning, I also had to keep moving my hands in order to maintain balance. Since I had to keep using both my arms and legs constantly in this exercise, it was extremely difficult to keep it up, even if I was only going at it for a few minutes.

“Agh!” I stopped my air chair in midair and landed on the floor. I used my sweat-drenched shirt to try to wipe still more sweat from my face. Both my arms and legs cried out in exhaustion—they said I’d been moving them too vigorously. Too cruelly. I ignored them.

When it’s time to rest, you should rest. But this wasn’t that time.

Ah, they’re growing. I can feel my muscles growing! The corner of my mouth curled up into a grin. Honestly, that was why I did muscle training. Feeling myself getting stronger was an incomparable pleasure.

“All right, what next…huh?” I looked up at the ceiling. I heard sounds coming from the roof.

Drip, drip. It was raining.

“Perfect.” There was a great exercise you could only do indoors on a rainy day. The exercise was called “counting the number of raindrops hitting the roof.” It was just the right kind of training to do at a time like this. Surely the Muscle God had given me the gift of rain in light of my tireless efforts.

“Thanks, Muscle God!” I showed gratitude to my muscles and began my next exercise.

One hundred fifty-nine thousand, eight hundred and seven. One hundred fifty-nine thousand, eight hundred and eight. One hundred fifty-nine-thousand, eight hundred and nine…

A few hours passed in this way. I counted the number of raindrops with single-minded focus. As the rain grew more intense, the sound of the raindrops hitting the roof sounded almost like a waterfall. It certainly was no easy feat to keep track of them all.

This exercise targeted two things. First were my ears, which I honed so that they could hear every sound, no matter how small. Second was my thought process, which I honed so that I could process information and count while listening with my ears.

This way, I trained both things at the same time! I closed my eyes and focused all my senses solely on the information that I could obtain from my ears. By relying on a single organ, that one organ could become exponentially sharper.

Just then, my ears caught a sound other than the sound of the rain. While I continued counting the raindrops in my mind, my brain recognized the sound of someone approaching the door to my room.

“I’m back!” A pleasant voice like the ringing of a bell. Filia had returned. From her footsteps, I could tell that she wasn’t wandering around; she was walking directly toward me. “Oh, Yuri, are you sleeping?”

Ah, I bet she thought that because my eyes were closed. I was standing in the direct middle of the room in a wide, imposing stance, but I had also often slept while standing up.

One hundred and fifty-nine-thousand, nine hundred and fifty. One hundred and fifty-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifty-one. One hundred and fifty-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifty-two…

I concentrated on my training without paying any mind to Filia. Now that Filia was back, I’d call it quits after one hundred and sixty-thousand.

“Yuriiii? Huh. Maybe he really is sleeping?” Filia walked around me over and over as I was standing there. The scent of soft flowers stimulated my nose.

Don’t come any closer! It’ll break my concentration! But…wait, that could become yet another kind of training! All right, Filia, I’ll accept your challenge!

One hundred fifty-nine-thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven. One hundred fifty-nine-thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight. One hundred fifty-nine-thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine…one hundred sixty thousand!

“Still asleep, huh? Hmm. I bet I could pull a fun little prank on you… Tee hee hee!”

“I’m awake.”

“Uphth-bwah?!” shouted Filia, in an odd voice.

After enduring temptation and finishing my count all the way up to one hundred sixty thousand, I opened my eyes, feeling refreshed. Standing right in front of me was Filia, a thick black marker in hand.

More importantly, though, how in the world had she made such weird words fly out of her mouth so instantaneously? Was that a kind of training too?

“O-oh, you’re awake…” she mumbled. “Please don’t surprise me like that.”

“Sorry, my bad. By the way, what’s with the marker you’re holding in your hand?”

“Th-this? This is…a good question! Hmm! I just, uh. Don’t remember. Sorry!”

Liar. She had definitely meant to draw all over my face. Filia acted all innocent, her eyes flicking about, and she was touching her face with her hands. “Well, whatever. You’ve been trainin’ today too, huh?”

“Of course. So there’s no need for you to be all depressed even if you lose to me, okay?” said Filia, letting out a little snort like she was trying to provoke me.

“Oho…interesting. Okay, then. If I lose, I’ll listen to one request from you, no matter what it is.”

“Really?! Wow, I’m feeling super motivated! Now then, what kind of unreasonable request am I going to make of you, mmm?”

“You’ve already decided it’ll be unreasonable, huh?”

Filia looked incredibly animated, like her mind was just crawling with ideas.

Maybe I’d made a mistake. Nah… I shook my head to try and get rid of weak thoughts like that. As long as I won, there wouldn’t be a problem. I’d never lose to anyone, no matter who!

While I was thinking that, Filia crossed her arms, looking very serious. Just as I was wondering what she was thinking, her peach-colored lips parted, and she spoke. “But Yuri, it wouldn’t be fair if you were the only one to get punished for losing. Yes, it’s decided! If you win, I’ll give you the right to carry my bags the next time we go shopping!”

“No thanks.” I mean, wasn’t that more like a punishment for losing a game?

Filia’s eyes widened, as if she was incredibly surprised. “Oh? That’s so unusual, though. Isn’t allowing you to touch my personal belongings a reward? It is, isn’t it?”

“I honestly cannot believe how you say all that stuff with a straight face.”

“Oh, Yuri, please believe me: I am being unquestionably sincere,” Filia announced, putting her hand to her chest, wearing an angelic look—no, maybe even the look of a goddess. But when you compared that look to the words coming out of her mouth? Jeez, she was just rotten to the core!

“If you’re being sincere, that’s worse! You know that, right?”

“Know what?”

“Ugh. Anyway, I won’t need a reward like that when I beat you!” I declared.

“Oh? Well, I refuse to lose, Yuri! I’m training reallllly hard, and I’m going to beat you to a pulp!” she retorted, meeting my arrogant declaration with her own.

Even so, just being able to fight Filia was getting me pumped up! I knew Filia could freely call the Wind God now, but I still didn’t know how serious she was going to be in this fight.

Ah, c’mon, calendar! Can you move a little faster? Just three days…

 

***

 

The calendar listened, but it still took three days.

Filia, Ashley, and I were once again standing in the wide-open wilderness, in the same place where Ashley and I had fought a week prior. Filia and I walked out onto the battleground, which was sparsely covered with withered, thin, yellow-ish vegetation, and stood facing one another.

“I never thought the day would come when I’d fight you, Filia,” I said.

I’d had her blast me with her magic before, but that had just been training. Today wasn’t a training session. This was real combat. Of course, this wasn’t the kind of fight where we’d be taking each other’s lives or anything. Still, I had no intention of holding back.

“Do your best, Filia!” called Ashley.

Filia nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do my best for you!”

Wait, had they become friends during their training or something? Ashley was cheering for Filia, and Filia was responding with a big smile.

Well, whatever. I didn’t really care, but it still kinda felt like I was playing the part of the bad guy.

“Get a good look, Yuri! Filia is going to work you over!”

“Yep!” Filia added. “I’m seriously going to pop you one!”

“What does ‘pop me one’ even mean?” Huh, that was curious. When Ashley looked over to me, she had a smile of satisfaction on her face. Her red twin tails looked nice against the setting sun.

“Heh! You’ve fallen for it, Yuri. The onomatopoeia we’ve used, ‘pop,’ is part of a strategy we’ve been agonizing over for the past week, so that we can keep you from being able to focus on battle!” said Ashley, pointing at me enthusiastically.

Filia groaned. “Ashley, it doesn’t work if you tell him.”

Ashley blinked. “J-just…forget about that last part, okay?!”

“Talk about sloppy,” I muttered.

Then again, if their strategy was to break my concentration, they were kinda doing that right now. A little bit. But once we actually started to fight, it wouldn’t matter at all. I’d just toss all of those distracting thoughts right out of my mind.

“Phew.”

I let out a deep breath. I exhaled the air out of my lungs, sucked in fresh air, and turned all my attention toward the battle. In battle mode, my mind was clear and sharp. My thoughts were focused only on achieving victory. I released my muscles, and now, standing there with my much larger body, I looked over at Filia, who was just about ten feet away.

“Filia, you ready? I’m all set.”

“Yes. I’m ready whenever you are.” Filia returned my gaze with her own, looking straight at me with her silver eyes. I sensed no speck of fear in her gaze, none whatsoever. All I could sense reflected in her glittering gaze was a powerful sense of determination.

I couldn’t help but smile at that. This was great. This was super great! It was impossible for me not to smile when I had someone so strong looking right at me like that.

We faced each other.

In the next instant, as the heavenly bodies of generations looked down upon us from above the thin cloud cover, Filia made her move.

“I’m not going to hold back!” shouted Filia.

A giant made of winds enveloped her body: the Wind God. Filia played her hand, suddenly using the best ability she had at her disposal. The Wind God threw a punch at me with swiftness that belied its massive size.

“That’s it!” I roared. “Come at me!”

I countered the oncoming wind fist with my Pistol Punch. The figure of the giant shuddered for a moment, but my attack wasn’t enough to cancel it out. Its fist came closer and closer to me. Yeah, this was the stuff. This was the kind of moment that made fighting worth it.

“Take this!” I threw a direct punch at the giant. The titan collided with my well-trained fist, and one of its arms dissipated.

“Wh-wha?!”

Filia let out a cry of surprise, but I was even more shocked. I couldn’t believe that the Wind God was so tough that I couldn’t destroy its whole body even after a direct punch. On top of that, the wind rushing out from the collapse of the giant’s arm knocked me off balance.

No way was Filia going to let that chance pass her by. She cast fire magic at me.

“Hrgh!” I took the blast head-on. My clothes were burned up, but my body wasn’t damaged. “Is that it?”

“Jeez, you really aren’t human at all,” Filia grumbled. “Maybe you could go a little easy on me?”

I took a step to the side and gave Filia a look. In the next instant, lightning struck the spot where I’d just stood. “Nice try, but I’m not gonna let my guard down so easily.”

It was clever of her to prepare that spell while talking to me, but I wasn’t gonna be done in by something so trivial. She’d probably poured all of her might into that attack.

Filia looked on with a tight smile, her cheeks twitching. “How did you know? That I was preparing to cast my magic, I mean?”

“Intuition.”

“That’s so not fair!” Filia moaned.

“More importantly, though, you okay? Because I can see that you’re wide open right now,” I replied, plotting how to get in closer. The giant had already reformed its arm, but once I got within arm’s reach, it would be difficult for it to use any powerful attacks. Filia knew that if she carelessly let the giant throw a punch too soon, she might become collateral damage.

“Wait! Don’t come any closer!” Filia cast fire and wind magic at me, but I ignored the damage and charged straight at her.

“Somethin’ like that’s not gonna stop me!” I went straight for Filia and smacked the wind giant enveloping her. For a moment, my fist was pushed back by the wind giant’s body—but it soon broke through and reached Filia.

“Ugh!”

Filia went flying, and I chased after her. She’d collapsed on the ground. I straddled her chest now, my fist at the ready.

“You still wanna do this, Filia?”

“I still do! I’m…not…going to lose!”

Filia still wasn’t giving up? I was a little surprised at that. If this had been the old Filia, we would’ve been done right then and there. There had been some kind of change in her mental state or something. Or maybe Ashley’s training had had a positive effect on her?

But if we kept going from here, I was gonna have to actually hurt Filia. I really wanted to avoid that. I was glad Filia was so determined now, but I was somewhat less than stoked about it at a time like this.

“It’s great that you’re not giving up, but come on. Look at the situation rationally. During a fight, I go all out. I might even aim for the face, you know? How can you defend against that when I’m on top of you?”

I had to resort to threats—I didn’t have a choice. The truth is, you have to be a little bit rough to make an opponent surrender if they’re being stubborn. I think Filia saw I meant it by the look in my eyes. She understood.

Slowly, she closed her eyes. “I…surrender.” She shook her head side-to-side weakly.

I lowered my fist.

“Are you hurt?” I asked, offering my hand. I’d been careful not to injure her too greatly, but you could never fully avoid minor injuries like bruises and cuts.

“I’m okay. Nothing major.” Filia took my hand and stood up. Once she was on her feet, she patted her clothes, brushing off the grass and dirt. “What about you, though? Are you all right, Yuri? I hit you with all my magic at the end of our fight…”

“Ah, yeah, think I got hit a bit.” I lifted my shirt to show the damage. I’d gotten some light burns from her fire magic and some thin cuts from her wind magic.

“That’s practically nothing…” Filia muttered.

“It’s ’cause I’ve trained.”

“Ah, yes,” said Filia. “I suppose so. What else could I expect from the great Yuri?”

Filia cast her recovery magic, a look of utter resignation in her eyes. A white light enveloped me, and all my wounds were completely healed.

“Thanks, Filia. Also, that was way fun! Let’s do it again!”

“I don’t want to do it again, though,” said Filia. “The sight of you just coming at me no matter how much magic I blasted you with was, well. It was nothing short of terrifying.”

Filia didn’t want a rematch? Weird. We’d had such a great time, you know?

“Filia, are you all right?!” Ashley came running up to Filia from where she’d been watching, her twin tails swaying.

“Yes, I am…but I lost. I’m sorry,” said Filia with a weak chuckle.

“No, it’s okay. There’s no need for you to apologize, Filia. I’m the one who should be apologizing.” Ashley grabbed the sleeves of her own dress and squeezed herself. “I was just being stubborn. Next time, I’ll admit defeat and try my best. Filia, you taught me that. Thank you…so much.”

The corners of Filia’s mouth curved upward into a happy smile. “I like the sound of that. I’m sure that you’ll surpass Yuri in no time, Ashley. You are a prodigy, after all.”

Filia and Ashley smiled at one another.

“That’s exactly what I want to hear, so bring it on,” I announced, interrupting them. “If you can surpass me, then go ahead and do it. But just so you know, this muscle wall is thick and solid. I’ll be training every single muscle fiber in my entire body.”

Ashley shot me an unamused look, then turned to Filia. “Hey, Filia? I can’t understand what he’s saying. Not at all.”

“Let’s just leave him be. I’d worry more if you did understand him.”

Hey, c’mon! Were they really gonna just ignore me? I sighed. “Anyway, you guys look like you’re practically sisters now. When did you two get so close?”

“When we were training. Right, Ashley?” said Filia, smiling.

Ashley, however, didn’t share the look. For some reason, she had a stiff expression, like she was nervous about something. “Sisters… H-hey, Filia?”

“What’s the matter?”

“I-Is it okay if I call you that? Big Sis?” asked Ashley. She clutched her sleeves, looking down with her eyes closed. It was like her unyielding spirit from before had vanished in a flash.

“Um.” Filia didn’t give her an immediate answer.

Or, hmm. It was more like there was a silence, as if time itself had stopped. Ashley closed her eyes and waited for a response, but I guess she just couldn’t bear the feeling of not knowing. Then she looked up, seeming like she was about to cry.

“I-I suppose it’s really presumptuous of me to call you that, after all!” Ashley stammered. “I’m sorry, just forget what I—”

“No, Ashley, that’s not it,” I said, pointing at Filia. “She just fainted.”

Filia was still standing there, her eyes wide open, but she was totally out cold. It was really odd of her to just black out like that while standing up.

“Ah!” Filia shouted, suddenly coming back to her senses. “I’m sorry, you were just so cute that it knocked me unconscious!”

“What in the world does that even mean?” I asked. I honestly had no clue what the causal relationship was there. Please, Filia, explain to me the physiology of how that works.

Filia excitedly stretched her arms out to Ashley, took Ashley’s hands in hers, and shook them vigorously up and down. “Ashley…no, I mean, Little Sis! Yes, please! Please, please, please do call me that! Call me Big Sis!”

“D-do you mean it? Then—thank you for today. I hope we’ll get even closer, Big Sis!”

“Same here, Ashley!”

All right, so, uh. I guess all’s well that ends well. A happy ending. Filia was having fun, at least, so I guessed that was good? “Hey, Ashley,” I said. “If you want, you can call me Big Bro, ya know?”

“Just calling you Yuri is fine. Because now you and I are rivals, competing over Big Sis!” said Ashley, pointing at me emphatically.

Uhhh. When had that happened? But I got the feeling I couldn’t argue with her.

At once, Filia stepped between Ashley and me. “Please, you two,” she said. “Don’t fight over me! Heh. Eh he he! Oh, I’ve always wanted to say that! Ahhh. Dreams do come true!”

“I see,” I said. “That’s good.”

I had no idea what was good about it, mind you, but Filia seemed happy, and I wasn’t gonna take that from her.

I felt a little tug on my sleeve. I looked down and saw Ashley facing me, her eyes cast downward and her cheeks flushed, like she was feeling embarrassed. “But I am grateful to you, you know,” she said. “If I hadn’t fought you, I wouldn’t have realized that I was being held back. So, thank you.”

Huh. She was surprisingly cute—

“Though obviously I’m much more grateful to Big Sis. Yuri, you should be grateful to Big Sis too!” said Ashley, doing a complete turn, still holding onto my arm.

I knew it! She wasn’t cute after all.

“Yes, Yuri, please be grateful to me! Come on, hurry it up!” Filia cried.

And neither was she.