Scarlet

The next couple battles of the fifth round end up taking about the same amount of time, with the first one after Lost and Zero’s being between Shifter and a female student titled the Phantom from a higher ranked university with quantum magic – a rare type of magic. One that lets the user basically phase out of our reality halfway and do other stuff that can phase through shields and attack directly at their target. Kind of like a phantom or a ghost.

Of course, despite her rare magic, she still loses to Shifter, who proves why he and I are evenly matched in the betting sites with some of them even believing him to most likely win the thing. Although just as many believe me to be the most likely winner.

The other match that I watch is between Molten Angel and a man who everyone has kind of seen as a bit of a black horse so far. His title is Rebound, and his magic is actually something called Redirect. But no one can really tell much about his magic besides how it allows him to alter the directions of a lot of attacks and even move some of the wounds on his body.

A really confusing magic overall, but he somehow managed to beat the Molten Angel despite it in a display that still has both me and the audience confused.

I frown before finding the man and the dead Molten Angel disappearing from the arena as they’re replaced with the next pairing. Neither of which are people I care much about since they’re both relatively low on the betting site. And when I watched their previous matches, there wasn’t much that stood out as a challenge for me.

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear a bell toll from the door.

I glance at it for a moment before grabbing the device given to me for the magical reality and checking the camera outside to find Allen there. So I open the door, letting him come inside as the door closes behind him.

“Morning Scarlet,” he says with a wave, so I wave back and turn back to the arena again.

He walks over and summons another chair next to me to sit down. Then we just watch the battle that starts for a little while in silence.

It isn’t until the battle ends and one of them wins that Allen finally speaks up beyond his initial greeting, “So, about last night…”

I glance at him before sighing and saying, “Yeah… last night.”

Neither of us say anything for a few more seconds.

“So about the adoption…” Allen begins, but I quickly cut him off with a smile as I say, “White said it was fine as long as it was after the Class V Fracture.”

He looks surprised by that. So surprised he just stares at me for a few seconds before eventually muttering, “Oh. Well, that’s… That’s good!”

I nod at that, my smile growing larger in the process.

“It is,” I say while feeling a small lump building up at the base of my throat. One that I’m not entirely sure what is about but think it’s because of my emotions. “It is.”

“But why would she…” Allen mutters with a frown, only to glance at me to see my smile, making him pause for a moment before he smiles as well. “Never mind. We can wonder about it later.” His smile suddenly grows larger. “Now we have something else to celebrated!”

I tilt my head at that, still smiling as I ask, “What was the first thing?”

“Well, your victory in this tournament, of course,” he says with a wink and an amused smile on his face. I just shake my head, still smiling.

Then another buzz sounds from the door, making me bring up the device again, only to find Aria and her butler standing there in front of it to my surprise.

I quickly open the door, and the girl immediately runs over to me before sitting on my lap and hugging me while exclaiming, “Scarlet!!”

Both Allen and I chuckle at her actions. Meanwhile her butler just bows to us all from the doorway and says, “I will take my leave, young misses. If you require anything, just call and I will arrive within the minute.”

I blink at that before nodding and shutting the door after he leaves. Then I focus on Aria and ask, “So how has your shooting gone?”

She makes a sour face at the mention of the commercials she was shooting all day till now, only to bury her face in my chest as she says, “It sucked.”

Allen straight up laughs at that, bringing my attention to him as I pat Aria’s back only to find him actually leaking tears from his eyes. So I ask, “What are you laughing at?”

And his immediate answer is, “How much you look like a big sister right now!”

I blush at that before glancing at Aria to find her suddenly tightening her hold on me.

At some point over the time I’ve known Aria, I’ve mostly stopped being uncomfortable with her touch entirely. Which is a good thing. A very good thing.

Although it doesn’t seem to have affected my discomfort when touching others.

Is it because Aria is related to me? That whole pack mentality thing the blood lycans have? Does that even work when she isn’t a blood lycan herself?

“It does,” Tar states, sounding slightly grumpy for some reason.

I narrow my eyes at the air for a moment before hearing him grumbling something about letting Aria on me and not him.

That almost has me snorting in amusement, but I hold it in.

The tanuki is jealous of a nine-year-old girl.

Adorable.

He snorts while turning to focus on the battle from his place on the armrest.

“I’m glad,” Allen finally says after having calmed down, eyeing me with a smile.

“About?” I ask, glancing at Aria to find her peeking her head away from my chest to look at Allen.

“I’m glad you met your cousin,” he says while nodding his head at Aria, making her bury her face in my chest again to his amusement. “Both for your sake and hers. Because she only seems to act like a normal kid when she’s with you.”

“Oh really?” I ask while turning my focus to her, just for the girl to start squirming at the attention. “Interesting.”

She really is adorable though.

I raise my head to look at the arena again to find that the battle that’d started around the time Allen walked in is now over and it’s moving on to the next battle.

One that I actually do care about.