HP: The Arcane Thief-Chapter 61: Duels, A chance encounter

Martina was just intending to watch all the fun from afar. She wanted to research more about the unique magic-casting of these ninjas.

Martina is, and has always been, a true nerd. She has always needed a passion, something she can use her brain on to its fullest extent. In her previous life, aside from the usual geeky mangas, animes and novels, it had been science. She was interested in what wonders science could create. And in this life, it was magic.

Magic was so much better than science. With science, almost everything had been explored to its limits and any breakthroughs would have needed her to reach those limits first. But with magic, there are no limits.

These days, she's been researching how this Hand Seal magic works. Previously, she's already researched extensively about the workings of the wand magic. From what she's been able to glean, wizards don't store magic in their body. They channel it by drawing it from an unknown source. And the wand and the incantations make drawing and channeling that magic a lot easier. But somehow, the ninjas are able to draw that same magic through Handseals. She wants to find out the inner mechanics of how this whole system works. That's the reason why she was here right now, doing her research.

But suddenly, someone called out her name.

"MARTINA!"

"...." She suddenly had a bad premonition.

"""MARTINA! MARTINA! MARTINA!..."""

Soon, almost all of the Hogwarts students were calling out her name.

'Are they for real?' Martina regretted those days when she had been showing off without thinking of the consequences. She didn't like violence. Even when she previously dueled, it was because she wanted to test out her magic. Now she regretted doing that because she's now expected to duel with under so much attention. This is like a nightmare for an introvert like her.

But, if she didn't go, she'll be disappointing the whole school. Not that they would do anything to harm her, but they'd still have ill feelings towards her for letting them down.

'What to do?'

Martina analyzed her situation. Ever since the end of last term, she's no longer able to have the same leisurely and carefree attitude towards her life here.

She had just found out that despite all the changes, Voldemort was still there and with so many changes to the timeline, it was no longer certain if the light side would be able to have the victory again and at what cost. She'd been living with her head buried in sand and the philosopher's stone incident made her face reality. Thus, among other things, she has also been trying to train her combat abilities ever since in order to be prepared.

Though her command over her magic was quite strong, she had very little combat experience. And dueling in real life is the chance to gain that. Besides, if she experiences their magic up close, she'll have a better shot at learning more about the HandSeal magic.

Thus, despite her reluctance, Martina slowly stood up.

CHEERS

The crowd went wild when they saw Martina getting up. Up until now, they had lost the majority of the duels and they didn't like the disdainful looks of the Mahoutokoro. Thus, when they realised that Martina, the Hogwarts' genius was going to face them, they were thrilled to see her beat them.

The crowd parted, and under the excited cheers of the students, Martina entered the Dueling circuit.

Endo Yuji stood at the other side, looking pleased. He wanted to take this opportunity to show his capabilities to Martina in order to impress her.

"Let's have a wager, Miss Martina. If I win, you will go on a date with me and if I lose, I will go on a date with you," he said, brushing back his spiky hair.

BOOOOO

The students of Hogwarts were enraged. Especially the guys. Martina is Hogwarts' treasure. Even they have only been able to look from afar and this guy is blatantly hitting on her after disrespecting the whole school.

"No thanks," Martina looked at the boy with some pity. This conversation was currently being broadcasted and recorded with multiple devices. Since he's done this so openly, there's no way her family wouldn't find out about it. And that can only mean that this boy is going to regret his actions.

Not wanting the boy to get himself into more trouble, she looked at Professor Flitwick. "Can we start?"

Professor Flitwick nodded. "Duelists, take Positions!" He called out, his wand much more ready this time. There will be consequences if anything were to happen to miss Valentino.

"START!" Flitwick barked and Endo began his Hand Seals. Martina simply observed his technique closely, doing her research.

Soon, blasts of concentrated air came in Martina's direction with an incredible speed. It was much faster than average spells of students.

Martina simply raised her wand and a semicircular shield formed around herself which was quickly bombarded by the blasts of concentrated wind.

BOOMBOOMBOOM

Though this was much powerful than what he had used against Cedric, Martina's shield wasn't even faized and no fluctuations reached her even when shockwaves of wind rippled through the arena.

Panting a bit, Endo looked at Martina in surprise. He was feeling humiliated for being so publicly rejected by her and he was also quite offended with the crowd's response. Hence, he'd used a lot of force in the earlier attack. Even the best shields wouldn't have been able to take that attack but Martina didn't even seem phased by it.

In fact, not only Endo, even the professors and Senseis were taken aback. Martina hadn't used any wand movements or incantations just now and the attack just now was powerful enough to obliterate any average Protego. More importantly, the casting time was almost instantaneous, as if she'd done it quite effortlessly.

After noticing the shocked reactions around her, Martina clicked her tongue. The spell she had just used was the one she usually used while doing her experiments. It's not uncommon for her experiments to result in horrible explosions. Thus, she had gotten used to automatically conjuring this shield in such situations. And now she had exposed it due to her habit.

'Damn it!' Endo was regretting using that technique just now. He wanted to show his overwhelming superiority with that attack but Martina handled it like it was nothing. Now he had wasted all that energy for nothing and still looked like a fool.

"Very well then," he muttered, deciding to take it to close range.

As Endo made handseals for his next Jutsu, Martina could already tell what he was trying to do. After all, she had observed his previous fight closely as well. It was the magic with which Endo had closed the distance between him and Cedric so quickly.

To counter this, Martina recalled a familiar spell.

"Lucious Nitorem!" She called out just when Endo was done with his HandSeals.

With a burst of Wind magic, Endo was about to make his way over to Martina at incredible speed, just like in his previous duel with Cedric, but…

SPLAT—

His foot slipped and he fell forward with in incredible moment…. Face first.

The end result of Endo doesn't need to be described. Suffice it to say that there were a lot of teeth and blood. Professor Flitwick was paying too much attention on Martina and Endo was too fast, thus, by the time his cushioning spell reached him, it was already a bit late.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Martina just wanted to stop Endo from coming into close range and she recalled the spell Axel had used against the troll and which had also made her slip. Thus, she used this spell.

She didn't know that the guy would be stupid enough to charge head first even after she clearly used a spell on the ground, resulting in such gruesome scene.

Looking down at the poor boy, Martina felt genuinely sympathetic. After all, she knows just how embarrassing it is to slip due to such a simple trick. At least unlike her, he didn't have his underwear exposed.

Standing to the side, the senseis shook their heads in disappointment. This boy still has a long way to go. Under normal circumstances, Endo wouldn't have fallen for that trick but he was too unfocused due to Martina and the crowd.

"Damn it! Told him he should just stick with Quidditch!"

Many ninjas now wanted to face Martina. Endo wasn't the best duelist here. His main forte was Quidditch. For combat, there were many who thought they were better. Some of them had already dueled today with the other elites of Hogwarts while the others hadn't gotten the chance.

Another one came, this one had fire and water dual element ability. He bombarded Martina with attacks powerful enough that any Hogwarts student would have lost to him. Too bad Martina's defensive spells were impenetrable. She didn't give her opponent the time to perform any more of his ninja tricks and quickly defeated him.

CHEERS!!!

The Hogwarts students were now delirious with pride. Martina's name was being chanted almost with worship.

"She's really good..." accepted Daphne with a sigh. Hogwarts had lost the majority of the matches today and like any other proud Hogwarts student, it had left her feeling bad. Thankfully, they had Martina, who was so good at dueling.

"She's just an amateur," said Axel, not much impressed as he watched everything with using a low level Arcane Eyes. Martina was not good at fighting. He wouldn't claim he was better, not with her clearly holding back a lot right now, but if she keeps this up, an experienced fighter who has observed her fight would be able to take her down easily if she doesn't use more of her powers.

"Martina... amateur?"

Daphne looked at Axel weirdly, but then shrugged. Even though his claims are a bit absurd, but it's at least better than him simping over Martina like all the other boys, right?

"Well Mr. Professional, can you do better?" She asked playfully.

Axel shrugged but didn't answer and Daphne didn't try to expose him. She didn't really care if Axel was good at dueling or not. She was already crushing on him back when he was crippled.

"You're still in your second year. There's plenty of time," she told Axel as she bumped shoulders with him. With his talent and hard work, wouldn't Axel be better than Martina one day?

"...."

Looking at the clueless girl beside him, Axel shook his head but still didn't say anything. His capabilities, only he needed to know.

...

'Sigh… that was a close one.'

After winning this second duel, Martina was thinking of going back. She realized that these duels were dangerous. She was unfamiliar with the ninjas' way of fighting, too inexperienced, and she also didn't want to show off too much. If forced into a desperate situation, she might accidentally do some magic that is far too absurd for someone her physical age. Thus, she decided it would be better to retreat now. She had done her part and it's not like Hogwarts doesn't have its own elites to duel these people.

Just as she was going to alight the circuit and the Mahoutokoro students were deciding among themselves who will be going, someone appeared in the circuit, facing Martina.

"What?!"

"It's her!"

"Matsushima… Akiko?"

"Akiko's actually fighting?"

"So, Martina managed to pique her interest, huh?"

While most of the Hogwarts students were clueless, the Mahoutokoro students reacted quite intensely by the new arrival. It was an auburn haired girl with a serious face and a voluptuous body that was outlined due to her tight clothing. She had a short sword strapped to her back.

The girl regarded Martina with curiosity. "Let's duel," she proposed.

Not knowing the girl's identity, Martina thought she might as well have another match. This girl's face looked quite cute and harmless and she didn't want to make things awkward by retreating now. "Alright…"

This time, the cheering from Mahoutokoro was equally intense.

"A-KI-KO! A-KI-KO! A-KI-KO!"

"MAR-TINA! MAR-TINA! MAR-TINA!"

??? Looking at the crowd's reaction, Martina realized that Matsushima Akiko might actually turn out to be someone even more dangerous than her other opponents. But, it was already too late to back down now since Flitwick had already asked them to take positions.

"START!"

As the match started, both girls didn't do anything at first, both seemingly waiting for the other person to make a move. But then, Martina decided to make her move. She decided to finish this as soon as possible. Thus, she went on the offensive and fired a few spells at the girl.

"It's over for Martina," murmured Axel.

??? Confused, Daphne wanted to ask him what he was smoking but… she suddenly went quiet when she saw the girl appear behind Martina with a kunai at her throat.

!!!!

Everyone who hadn't seen Akiko in action before was shocked. Looking back at the place she was standing before, they saw her image dissipating.

Though the one who was the most shocked was, of course, Martina herself. Because her mind was already coming up with different hypotheses on how she did it, each of which required something absurd.

Flitwick quickly announced Martina's defeat while asking the girl to put away her weapon, lest Martina gets a scratch and Mahoutokoro burst into cheers amidst the deadly silence of Hogwarts.

"You hold back too much." These were the words Martina heard from Akiko and then she was gone, just as swiftly and silently as she had come.

With that, the first exchange between the schools was closed with Hogwarts students going back feeling unreconciled.

"That was clearly cheating!"

"Yeah, how cowardly are these ninjas, sneakily attacking from behind like that."

"Well, of course they'll resort to this. Couldn't do anything against Martina upfront."

That's how they consoled themselves. Though there was one person who had completely different thoughts.

"Those techniques…. This girl is something," muttered Axel, his eyes still throbbing due to excessive use of Arcane Eyes. Yes, while others might be puzzled, he had seen exactly what transpired inside the circuit just now. He was quite regretful the fight ended so quickly. He wanted to see those techniques a few more times and learn those techniques, especially since... one of them was Lightning related. Too bad, it doesn't seem like it would be possible any time soon now.

…

The next morning, Axel went to train early in morning again . First, he sprinted some laps around the ground. Then, with his warm up done, he entered the forbidden forest to do his main training, just like yesterday.

Though, this time, something was different. In the clearing where he usually trains, someone else was already there, training so early in the morning.

Yep, his training spot had been stolen by someone. And the person who stole it… it was none other than the girl who beat Martina yesterday, Matsushima Akiko.

…

A.N.: Final duel: Axel vs Akiko in the .