"well, Mr Addison" Ellie said as the camera faced Orie.

  "What are your thoughts on the current state of the match?"

  "I'm really not sure" Orie replied

  "To be honest, this is the first time I've seen Her like that so I don't actually know what to expect"

  "But if I had to take a guess..."

  "... I'd say I'm glad she wasn't like this in our match"

  Natsumi missed her first strike, and her second, and her third, and her fourth, and... all her strikes, she missed all of it. As it turns out, Kurobe had quite the reflex and was really good at evasion and keeping the distance. Every time Natsumi got close, he quickly evaded and put distance between them, pushing her back, attacking from blind spots, setting walls between them and a Whole lot of moves that prevented him from getting hit but that didn't stop his opponent from trying.

  With each passing second, Natsumi got closer to landing a hit on Kurobe. At first it was him feeling the little breeze as her fist flew past, then it was him feeling the cold brushes of her fingertips as she tried to grab him. Little by little, Natsumi made each hit closer than the last until she finally landed a clean one.

  A punch to the liver is well known for being quite painful, but it definitely gets worse when the entire area of impact gets frozen. There's not much one can do after such a hit and Kurobe certainly wasn't an exception. The last thing he remembered was that he used the last of his strength to launch an attack but it got interrupted by a punch to the face; an ordinary punch from a woman, no special attributes, just an ordinary well calculated punch to the face.

  "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN..." the announcer spoke with enthusiasm

  "IT HAS BEEN A WONDERFUL MATCH WITH WONDERFUL CONTESTANTS"

  "BUT IT HAS NOW COME TO AN END "

  "I PRESENT TO YOU"

  "THE WINNER OF TODAY'S MATCH"

  "THE STRONG..."

  "THE BRAVE..."

  "THE CHEERFUL..."

  "NATSUMI... FUBUKI!!!"

  There was a great deal of excitement as many people in the stadium roared with a mix of joy and frustration. The least excited person there was Natsumi.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  "We could have kept this going a bit longer" the voice in her head said.

  "Then maybe next time I won't make my first attack a near lethal blow" she replied

  "How could we have known he was that weak?"

  "The fire guy had some fight in him at least"

  "He may have won that match if he didn't run out of energy"

  "Fine, I get it"

  "I need some rest" she said as she slowly walked out of the arena.

  The first person to greet Natsumi as she stepped off the arena was her younger brother, Souma.

  "Good job sis" the teen said joy as rushed to give Natsumi a hug

  "You really deserve to win" he added

  "She definitely does" a familiar voice said from behind. Souma looked back to see a face he recognised.

  "Oh..." He said with disappointment

  "It's the boyfriend"

  "It's just you again, Sou" Natsumi said looking at her little brother

  "Yeah" Souma replied

  "But big sis Naomi was watching over broadcast"

  "She called to ask if you were okay "

  "I'm glad to hear that" Natsumi said

  "Alright let's go grab something to eat"

  "All the fights just make me hungry "

  "Then we better hurry " Orie added

  "Tanaka is serving her special steak salad today"

  "Prepared by her own hands "

  "We can still get it if we make it in time"

  "Alright " Souma said in agreement

  "But Mr boyfriend should be the one to make the orders"

  "I don't want my sister eating that raw unseasoned abomination she ate last time"

  "It wasn't raw!!" Natsumi blurted out

  "It was rare and lightly seasoned "

  "That dish was so raw I swear I thought I saw it move"

  "Why are you eating like a bodybuilder?"

  "It wasn't that raw!!" Natsumi yelled

  "You're right Souma replied

  "It wasn't raw, it was alive"

  Natsumi had no reply to that except an unintelligible screeching and after that, laughter. It was the most expressive laugh she had let out in a long time. She kept laughing and laughing and soon Orie and Souma joined in, laughing as they walked out of the stadium, ignoring the crowd that was trying to get close to them as Kojiro cleared the way.

  With the tournament still ongoing, the city was packed with tourists and citizens alike, traffic grew dense and all forms of business were booming. Tanaka's restaurant was no exception as all her tables were full and she had reservations that were for up to three weeks. The restaurant had to expand and set more tables outside while maintaining their VIP service inside. As tiring as as the situation was for most businesses, it was the best time to make money and most of them made more money than they would make for the rest of the year.

  Orie had a special V.I.P status in the restaurant so they were able get in easily but as soon as they entered it became apparent that they weren't the only ones receiving special treatment that evening. Shiro, Victor and Mia were already seated at one corner of the VIP section, Marie was also with them and Yang was hovering around them as Yamato was preparing their meals.

  "Hey!!" Orie said in a surprised tone

  "What are you guys doing here?" He asked

  "What does it look like?" Shiro replied after he was done swallowing his food.

  "Aren't you here for the same reason we are?" He asked

  "You better hurry up and make your order"

  "They're almost running out"

  Orie simply replied with "alright" and proceeded to secure a table. And with a calm but very loud voice he called out "Where's the boss"

  "With that Kind of tone, I expect you're here to eat something good and not waste my time ordering fancy nonsense like everyone else" The voice that said that was Tanaka's and she was at the table with a tray of food and many ingredients.

  "You know I always eat good" Orie replied with with a smile as he set his eyes on the tray.

  "Then you're in for a treat"