Dragon Heart | #Wattys2022

XII - Dark Chakra

Haru and friends found their seats saved for them by Mak and Ori who went on ahead to scout for perfect seats with good view of the arena. It was starting to get crowded too with eager spectators of the remaining students about to take on the final exam. The events from a week ago concerning Lex and Haru's match has long since forgotten; the Academy released a statement to the concerned spectators – and students alike – on why a Senshi stopped the match between the two students:

Both students involved showed great and equal potential to becoming one of this village's gifted Senshis. It was evident in the one-on-one combat they participated in. A higher level Senshi was required to step in to stop the fight and spoke to both students involved.

That was the statement the Academy released the following day. They left out the fact that both Haru and Lex were rushed to the hospital from chakra-exhaustion afterwards; they deemed it wasn't necessary to alert other students and parents that something sinister was brewing.

"Is that Haru and Lex?" gasped Ori, eyeing the two animals being carried by Kura and Wendy. Her eyes landed on the furry Lex first and stayed there.

"Oi, Ori, stop looking at me like you wanna swallow me up alive!" Lex barked.

Ori giggled and without asking for permission, she scooped him from Kura's arms and into hers, pressing him tight against her buxom chest, squishing the cute furry animal like it was one of her many stuffed animals that she collects.

"So kawaii," she giggled, burying her face against Lex's neck and nuzzling him.

"Hey!" Lex exclaimed, trying to claw himself away from Ori's embrace, but he was being over powered by the usually calm and peaceful Senshi-in-Training.

"Just let her be, Lex," chuckled Rin, leaning back in his seat and making himself comfortable to watch the matches. "Ori's into furry, fluffy things since forever."

"Yeah, she collects tons of furry stuffed animals," Inigo added, thinking back to the amount of stuffed animals their friend owns.

"Well I am not one of her stuffed toys," Lex argued, pushing his paws down hard on something that felt alarmingly soft and squishy. "Hot damn," he gulped, feeling his body temperature rising higher than when he was outside walking in to the arena when he realized what he was just pawing.

"Oi!" Inigo scolded, glaring at the Slayer-turned-husky and giving him a sound knuckling on the head. "Don't be a perv," he added before pulling him away from Ori's embrace and setting him on the seat beside him away from the fluff-crazed teen.

Rin burst out laughing all of a sudden, catching the attention not only of his friends but of the people seated around them.

"What's so funny?" Ori frowned, tilting her head sideways in confusion, completely oblivious to what her friend found so funny.

"Lex is just Mr. Popular today," Rin answered in between laughs, heaving a deep breath and expelling it to calm himself from laughing too much. "First he riled Suk up when Kura won't stop cooing over him, and now Inigo's all riled up 'coz Lex managed to get a pawful of Ori's—" Rin didn't get to finish the rest of that sentence before a pair of fists landed hard on his head, nearly nailing him permanently in to his seat.

"No need to be crass, Rin," scolded ZE, glaring down at the jokester of their group.

"I was just explaining the situation," Rin pouted, rubbing the spots ZE and Red hit him on. "And no need for you to get violent, ya know?" he pouted.

"ZE's just like that," Nate said nonchalantly. He was used to being on the receiving end of many of ZE's smacks; most of the time he deserved to be bonked in the head because of his lack of tact.