Claire and i head down to meet Vanessa and congratulate her on her first win. We find her walking down the hall from the locker room and i greet her. 

-Yo princess, good job winning that match. 

-I just did my best, after all you did help train me so its the least i could do. 

-Still, that was a bad match up, if it wasn't for Excaliburs lightning he could've turned the match around. 

-Perhaps, but i planned for that. Also, who's she? 

Vanessa points to Claire and asks, i introduce them to each other. 

-Vanessa, this is Claire. Claire, Vanessa. 

-Uhm... Hello. 

-Hi, a bit shy isn't she? 

-Yeah, but Claire has been improving. 

-I see, how about we go out and look around the festival? I haven't had a chance to. 

-Claire and i did look around a bit but sure, there's plenty of other stalls we didn't check out. 

-Great! Let's go. 

Vanessa walks ahead dragging Claire with her. I follow along behind them as they headed to the festival grounds. Vanessa went around looking for accessories or other shiny trinkets and used Claire as a dress up doll. I quietly bought any item Vanessa thought looked nice but didn't think fit on Claire, i could use a gift for her after the tournament. There was a couple of beautiful gold earrings with matching Ruby or sapphire gems, obviously i bought both and swapped the gems around to make them match my eye color. We continued having fun exploring the festival till evening when we all parted and returned to our dorms. 

The next day i had nothing to do since matches were staggered so if i had the a match on day 1 my next one would be on day 3. Vanessa told me she'd be practicing again and Claire had other matters to attend to. So today i summoned Epsilon to help me compile the report I'll send to father, he's probably expecting a report soon so best to do it now while i had the free time. Aside from that Epsilon informed me That Mikheal was dead and a massive power vacuum was opened in his place, looks like i gotta get into the criminal underworld to see what's going on. 

The following day i return to the arena, my match is scheduled to be second and I'm not interested in the first match of the day. I decide to loiter around and read the report Epsilon sent me about the aftermath of Mikheal's death, so far nothing out of the ordinary but i notice a few suspicious events going on. I also read about my upcoming opponent, I'm going up against Natalie Romanov, daughter of a politician who was part of the Russian delegation to the UN. Surprisingly skilled with a gun for a girl her age and some rumours say she's trained as an elite KGB operative. 

Seems that my plan to win unscathed may be in jeopardy, but considering the level of photon technology my reflexes should still be able to keep up with the relatively slow projectile speed of this world's photon rifles. I've had to dodge 3rd brothers rifle "Purple Lighting" that could fire at velocities just shy of the speed of light on the lowest setting so i should be able to handle this. 

After the match has ended i enter the locker room and prepare, walking into the arena with sword in hand i see a woman with short blue hair walking opposite me. In her hand is a long rifle similar to AK in form but obviously photon powered with parts of the gun glowing. I listen closely to the whispers from the audience, some are discussing if i could actually win this while others are talking about how long this match will last. Looks like their in for a surprise. I take a defensive stance as the referee asks if I'm ready, Natalie for her part shoulders her rifle and takes aim. 

As soon as the referee starts the match Natalie squeezes the trigger and a single photon blast rings out. Its far faster than any ballistic based projectile but i have still have leeway to dodge or block it. I decide to go for a block and flick my sword to slice the shot. People gasp at my display of speed. Natalie switches her rifle to full auto and starts firing multiple shots at me, of course i deflect all of them so she starts laying on the trigger and firing without halting. The thing about photon guns is that as soon as you stop firing it immediately starts recharging but if you don't pause you'll quickly leave yourself empty. This is what happens to Natalie as her rifle goes dark and no longer fires, seeing this i immediately rush her and attack. 

Natalie tries to block with her rifle but i push through and start cutting through it, realizing this she quickly pulls back and tries to buy time to let her rife recharge. While not fully topped up its enough to fire a few shots to force me to pull back. The match is still a stalemate since neither of us actually landed a blow on the other. But i plan to change that, i rush her quickly and as she fires trying to hit me i block all of her shots with my sword. Eventually i get close enough to get within striking range and i launch an upward slash, i cut her rifle in half cleanly. The front half slides down and the arena goes silent. 

The referee is told that I'm the winner and announces it to the audience. Natalie reluctantly shakes my hand before picking up the pieces of her rifle. We part ways and i head to the lockers.