"I'm sorry", she apologized.
I don't know why she's apologizing in the first place.
"What are you apologizing for?", I asked.
"For losing."
*Huh?*
I see.
"You don't have to, it's not like you need to win in the first place."
"Well…"
"This is just a test for the Commander to know your capability. Whether you win or lose, it's not like something gonna happen."
"I know."
Her voice is getting low and low.
"And also, it's not like you gonna win in the first place."
"How mean"
She pouted.
*I just gonna tease her a little until she stops blaming herself for what happened.*
"Well, Ernesta is a Vice Commander."
"But still"
"Vinna."
"Y-yes?"
"You did great."
"Thanks."
She finally smiles.
To be honest, I don't really think Vinna might win in the first place. Ernesta is an experienced fighter plus a Vice Commander, she might actually kill so many Outsiders than I imagine. Base on her moves, she might kill five to ten Outsiders without breaking a sweat. She's fast and has good reflexes, she actually withstands Vinna's attack. If this girl becomes my opponent, I might surrender immediately before the fight started.
The Commander walks towards us and spoke.
"Okay, next match."
"So, who's gonna fight me?", Rick asked.
"No one", Commander reply.
"Eh?"
"For the next battle, it will be between Hiro and Greg."
*Wait what?*
"Eh, why? I mean there's me and Darius", Rick complained.
"It will be unfair, just look what Ernesta did."
"Well… I hold back a little you know", Ernesta protested.
"Yeah yeah, I will also hold back"
"No. It will be better if the two beginner face, the fight might last longer than before, for that I will see what they really capable of."
*Sigh*
Rick sighed.
"You two, are you ready?"
"Y-yes? I think?"
I answered while Greg nodded.
We went to our position and ready for the fight.
Greg holds his katana that still in its holder.
I don't know whether it is me or Greg who will make the first move. Since Greg is a samurai, I should expect his speed and reflexes will be greater than mine.
"Goodluck! You two!", Ernesta shouted.
I look at Vinna, she's looking tense for some reason.
"Ah"
I took a deep breath.
I pick up my knife on my right.
After ten seconds of standing and thinking of strategy, I started running on my left side and Greg follows me. As I thought, he's fast. When he gets near to me, he tries to grab and punch me. It looks like he's going to fight without using his katana first.
I stop running and Greg also stops in front of me. I grab my knife on my left and try to slices it to him, and dodge it by leaning backward but Greg is shocked when he noticed it was a fake move. I change the position of my knife on my right hand and thrust it to him, but before the knife connects, he grabs his katana. It looks like he's gonna slice me. I use my knife to block it and…
"Huh"
It was also fake moves. Greg grabs my shoulder and punches me on my stomach.
"You copy me"
*It hurts*
I'm clutching on my stomach while bearing the pain.
His strength is also no joke.
Greg runs towards me, I throw my knife at him and he dodges it. I use it as an opportunity to get away from him.
While I'm running away, I scan my surroundings. It's full of trees. I look back and I saw Greg, his getting near to me.
*This might work*
I stop running, grab my knife on my left and face Greg.
I dash towards him, I slash my knife on his chest and he grabs his katana to block it. I jump backward and Greg dash on me and swing his sword left and right. I block it using my dagger, Greg pulls his sword and thrust it at me with incredible speed, I move left sideward, he swings his katana again on me and I leaned backward to dodge. I pick my smoke bomb in my pocket and throws it at him, it exploded and spread the smoke immediately. I jump backward and…
________________________________________________________________________________________
As I swing my katana on him, he picks something in his pocket and throws it, and explodes right on my front, it spreads smoke immediately.
*Smokebomb?*
Hiro jumps backward out of the smoke, I follow him and…
"Huh?"
There's another smoke here. It seems like he throws again smoke bomb so I can't spot it immediately. I hold my katana with my two hands and ready myself for upcoming attacks, after five seconds of waiting, he throws a dagger on my left side and blocks it using my katana.
*This is it.*
When I dash towards I saw another smoke and he throws a dagger on my back and I block it again.
"Huh?"
*Didn't he throws all his knives?*
"Wait"
*The one he throws is a dagger, not a knife, so that means he's hiding some other weapons like the smoke bomb.*
It seems like he's also capable of fighting.
*I have no choice*
I activate my amulet that is attached to my katana and swings it as fast as I can, all the smoke on my surroundings is gone now.
"Huh?"
Hiro is on my front and looks confused. It seems that he didn't understand what happened.
Before his confusion disappears, I dash towards him and swing my katana. He came back to his senses and block my attack. I swing again and again and he keeps blocking it with his knife. He picks up the dagger on his left knees.
I didn't notice, he actually has two dagger holders on his both knees, it seems like the one he throws to me is the right one.
I dash towards him and thrust my sword towards him but…
________________________________________________________________________________________
"Ohhh! You two, do your best! Ernesta shouted
All of us watching Hiro and Greg fighting and base on their fights, it seems that Hiro is in a disadvantageous situation. Well, I don't know what happens when Hiro starts throwing some smoke bombs but since Greg swings his sword until the smokes disappear that for some reason I don't know how did he do that, we able to watch the fight again.
Even though Hiro is only a beginner when it comes to fighting, it seems he is able to fight Greg somehow.
"Hey Vinna", Ernesta called me.
"What?"
"How long did Hiroro practicing assassination?", she asked.
"Hmmm. One month"
"Wait one MONTH!?", she shouted
*That was loud. Wait did she just say Hiroro? Are they already close?*
Hiro is an introverted person, he mostly talks to me and to my father only. Whenever he's not with me, he's always spending his time alone. I don't where he's going and what he does but I know that he's alone, for some reason, he always keeps himself away from other people.
"Hey, Vinna", she called me again.
"What?"
"Who do you think will win?", she asked.
"Well…."
Well for me is…
________________________________________________________________________________________
Greg dashes and thrusts his katana towards me but instead of dodging it, I also dash towards him. The only opportunity I have is after the attack of Greg.
I dodge his attack, I hold tight of my knife and move it directly to his neck, Greg duck immediately and hit me with the back of his katana.
"Guh!"
*That hurt. Just how long I would last*
I still have some options but I doubt it would work. I also still have three daggers and two knives left.
"Ahh, ahh"
I'm also running out of breath.
*I need to end this quickly before I run out of energy.*
Greg is in front of me holding his katana with his two hands.
I run towards him and slash my dagger at him and he swings his katana to block my attack.
"Huh?"
My dagger cut into two immediately.
Greg immediately swings again his katana towards me. I immediately grab my other dagger to block it but it also slices into two.
"Oh no."
*I only have one dagger and two knives but I'm not going to waste any of it. *
I dash towards him and use my knife with an amulet to attack him, he swings his katana and didn't cut my knife obviously, Greg dash towards me.
*I have no choice, this is the only option I have*
I pull the round thing inside my pocket and immediately throw it to him and...
________________________________________________________________________________________
Hiro dashes towards me and uses his knife in his left hand to attack, I swing my sword to block it.
*Huh?*
It didn't cut the knife
*It seems like the knife has an amulet on it*
I dash towards him and ready my katana to swing but Hiro immediately pulls something into his pocket and throws it to me.
Then.
*Huh*
A huge net appears on my front. I immediately slice it but there's another appear again, I jump back to dodge it.
"Ahh, ahh'"
I'm running out of breath.
I never thought that this guy is pretty strong but there's something strange to him. There's something that lacks him. It's not skill, speed, and strength. But his lack of…
Will to win.
This guy to trying anything to last in our fight but I don't see to his eye's the will to win.
I remember what's father always says to me.
*This guy*
"Hey, Hiro"
"Yes?"
"How long have you been practicing assassination?", I asked.
"Well… I think it's already one month, to be precise it's already thirty-one days."
*What?*
"One month?"
"Yes."
"You really you are?", I asked again.
It's really suspicious that this guy only practicing assassination for one month.
"Yes, you can ask Vinna or the people in Moriai."
*From his eyes, he didn't look like he's lying. No! He doesn't have reason to lie at all*
"I see."
This person may lack skill and experience and even speed and strength, but I can see how intelligent he is. He's able to withstand any attack I did to him.
* But he still lacks the will to win. I don't know why he's like that but I can't let my guard down*
I dash towards him and swing my katana as fast as I can, but he immediately backward before it connects to him. I thought he jumps to dodge my attack but I notice something, what I standing is full of…
________________________________________________________________________________________
Before Greg starts to make a move, I drop the other round things on the ground. It's different from the two.
Greg dashes towards me and swings his katana but I immediately jump backward. Greg immediately notices what's on the ground but it's too late for him to escape now because the ground is full of bombs.
I drop all the bombs in my pocket. This time I'm sure it's my win.
Before he could move the bomb explodes.
*BOOM!*
A loud explosion coming from the place where Greg is standing. This bomb is not strong enough to kill him and even cut his limb but it can knock him off.
The place is full of smoke now, the ground and some plants are destroyed. When I try to look for Greg, there's something that moves fast.
*Eh?*
It's Greg, he survives the explosion and what's the worst is he didn't have so much scratch on his body.
"How?"
I can't believe from what I saw. This guy is in another league.
Greg dash towards me, before I could react, he punches me on my stomach then to my chin.
"Guh!"
I drop on the ground.
*It looks like I lose huh*
Greg walks towards me and said.
"You're weak"
He's glaring at me with his cold eyes.
"I know that."
I know from the start that I couldn't win against because I'm weak, I'm inexperienced.
"You-"
"Hiro"
Before Greg could speak, Vinna runs towards me.
"Are you okay?"
Vinna speaks, she seems worried but I don't know why she would in the first place. This is just a test, to see what we capable of.
"Yeah, I'm okay", I reply.
The others also walk towards us. Before Greg walks away I speak to him.
"Greg"
"What?"
"Your amulet, what's its power?"
"This? It's called Samurai's Amulet, it can cut anything even explosion smoke or amulet's powers but except to amulet itself."
*I see*
"So that means it can cut the blue line in Outsiders body easily?", I asked.
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean the blue line on Outsider's body, the line where their powers coming from and it's actually super hard to damage it."
"Hmmm. I don't know. I'm always activating my amulet whenever I encounter Outsiders."
"I see. I was just thinking that you don't need to attack a specific place where there is no blue line for you to defeat the outsider."
"Hiro", Commander called me.
"Yes?"
*I think I'm screwed now*
Since I lose the fight, there's a chance that I might not able to be part of this group.
"How many outsiders did you encounter?"
Instead of asking me to leave, she asked something else.
"Only one"
"I see"
"Really!?", Ernesta shouted.
Commander and Ernesta have different reactions and also personalities.
"You can go back for now and have some rest"
We go back to our room to rest and Commander and Ernesta went to the office.
________________________________________________________________________________________
After the fight, Ernesta and I get back to our office. Sitting on my chair, Ernesta approaches me and speaks.
"So, what's your decision? Are you going to accept him or what?", she asked.
"Well. He might be inexperienced and don't have much speed and strength but I can see how smart he is, he almost win against Greg and he also determines where's Outsider's strength coming from and its weakness. He might be useful to us."
"Woah! You're praising him so much. Are you going to replace me with him?"
"I'm actually thinking about that"
"Awww!"
She looks like going to cry at any second.
"I'm just joking, I won't replace the most trustworthy Vice Commander I have"
"Owww, I love you, Commander. C'mon, let me give you a hug."
"Stop it."
Ernesta finally stop.
"So, what's your decision?", she asked again.
"Like I said he's going to be useful to us so I'm going to accept him."
"Yey! Wait, where's it is?"
Ernesta finding something on her desk.
"Got it!"
After getting what she's finding, she immediately runs outside the office.
*She's really excited*
"I wish so won't do any crazy thing."
________________________________________________________________________________________
I went outside of my room and walk towards Hiro's. I was going to knock when I notice it's not locked. I peek inside and I saw Hiro, his sleeping. He might forgot to lock the door because of exhaustion. I enter the room and walk towards him. I saw his face, he looks pretty tired. I pat his head slowly, Hiro is easy to wake up, by only calling his name is enough to open his eyes.
I remember my conversation with Ernesta.
_______________________
"Who do you think will win?", she asked.
"Well…."
Well for me is…
"Hiro, of course"
"Eh? But why? Greg is obviously gonna win"
"Well… Because he is my friend. I trust him, so I'm choosing him."
"Woo, I see."
Ernesta blushed for some reason.
_____________________
I stop patting his head because I might wake him up.
I recalled his fight with Greg. Even though he is in disadvantages, he actually almost win against him. He also comforts me when I'm angry with myself because of my defeat.
I remember when we were kids, he always there for me whenever I feel sad or lonely, he always guides me in things that I don't know. He's almost acting like a teacher or even a parent on me.
"You're really kind person Hiro."
I walk away to his bed.
"Goodnight"
I went back to my room and start to sleep.
________________________________________________________________________________________
I was trying to sleep when someone walks inside my room.
*Huh? Did I forget to lock the door?*
The person walks towards me. I was going to open my eyes when something touches my head. It's soft and I feel comfortable for some reason.
*Wait, don't tell me it's Vinna*
She continues patting me until she spoke.
"You're really kind person Hiro."
*Huh? Where's it coming from?*
I was confused about what Vinna's saying but I feel Vinna walk towards the door and said.
"Goodnight"
She closes the door and went back to her room.
I finally open my eyes and recall what she said. My heart hurt and I feel uneasy for some reason. It feels like I'm lying to her and betraying her expectation to me.
*Sorry Vinna but you're wrong.*
"I'm not a kind person"