Kugo made it to school on Tuesday, it was a bit weird that people on the internet knew what school he attended. Actually, it was really weird. Even though not a lot of people actually knew he was Asprince, it was still likely someone who knew would tell the world.

“Hey Kugo!” Hirota shouted, startling an already worried Kugo. “Did you see? You’re trending.” Hirota said sneeringly. Kugo gave Hirota a death stare, this is the first time Hirota saw Kugo show an actual expression. Kugo looked around anxiously, listening to people whisper and laugh. He thought everyone was talking about him. It was driving him crazy. His nerves only increased because today was the first match of the spring tournament. Luckily, this tournament wasn’t played on a stage unlike the summer tournament and the high school championship.

Throughout the day, Kugo would still feel like everyone was talking about him. He could hear whispering along the lines of “Who do you think Asprince is?”  “I heard he attends here!”
In art class, his hands were trembling. If this didn’t stop by the time of the match, he wouldn’t be able to play. It was a shame because he was genuinely really excited to finally play in a tournament with his team, but he wanted to put his health first. Art class was finally finished and the team had to begin their practice before the tournament.

“Are you doing okay?” Seto asked while clicking his mouse.

“I can’t play.” Kugo said dejectedly. “Someone has to substitute for me.” 
The starting roster was currently:  Kugo, Rei, Akatsuki, Misa, and Seto. However, with Kugo subbing out it would change the dynamic even more. Under Kugo, the only fire user with a good build was Akira.
Akira played with Rei, and Misa before. But, Akatsuki and Seto never played with her in the starting roster.

Kugo sat down, he practiced breathing exercises trying to calm himself down. But nothing was working, eventually the clock struck. The invites to the digital lobby were sent out. Akira, Rei, Misa, Akatsuki, and Seto joined the lobby. Their match was against Akai Tori, they preferred going against a team they know a little bit about.

Kugo was benched right next to Yuki and Hirota, he stood beside Mr. Tanaka. And, watched the match with him. It was a bit different watching the team instead of playing for Kugo. He noticed a lot more mistakes than if he played with the team.

On Akai Tori’s roster it stayed the same as they had: Hottie on the fire element. Clever, a masterful strategist playing the earth role. Axis, a poisoning toxicologist. Sizzler, an ice user. Loonie, a dark magic user.

At Ishin Academy it looked like this: Akira on the fire element, Rei on the ice element, Akatsuki on the dark magic element, Seto on the lightning element, and Misa on the earth element.

The match kicked off, Kugo couldn’t help but twiddle his thumbs in a nervous and frantic rhythm. He wasn’t worried about the game, he was worried about his in-game presence. Getting poached by a professional team was not on his list. He didn’t want to go professional like this, he wasn’t quite ready for everyone to know his name.

Ishin Academy’s elemental composition relied heavily on defense, Akatsuki, Rei, and Misa changed their personal character builds just to fit the defensive playstyle Tanaka had introduced them to. Akai Tori was different this time, even though they had the same builds and the same elements as last time, their playstyle felt more synergized since they last played. This was a bad thing for Ishin Academy, they had already lost the first time. Losing again could just be bad luck?

While Kugo watched the match, he noticed a weakness. It was about 9 minutes in with 6 minutes left, Ishin Academy was down by four points. The weakness was caused by the defense, the defending of an objective was terribly held by whoever was on it.

“Coach, can you tell Akira to use her abilities to stop the enemy team from pushing?” Kugo asked, still frantically looking at the match.

Coach Tanaka stood up and repeated the words to Akira about using more of her abilities to stop the push. She wasn’t on the same build as Kugo but still had some effective defensive abilities.

After a while, Ishin was able to drag the game back and win over Akai Tori for their first tournament win in the spring tournament!