The tournament(part 1)

The day of the tournament arrived as students from different schools gathered at the Aiken Shuri dojo. There was a queue leading outside the dojo as registrations were taking place. Yashiro, Rando and Rani waited anxiously as they saw a few familiar faces, with one in particular standing out. Dota.

Rani said to herself, "a lot of mean looking guys here". She looked up at Rando, who appeared to be brimming with confidence. Then she shifted her gaze to Yashiro who was silently observing everyone around him and taking mental notes.

After registrations had been completed and everyone had entered the dojo, it was locked and one of the teachers, Ichisuda Motokishi began to speak.

"Welcome all, to the annual flowing fist tournament. I'm Ichisuda, and as the name implies, the only weapons allowed in this tournament is your body. Any use of external weapons and or powers will lead to a disqualification and a Ban from all further competitions. The rules of the tournament are simple. You can win by submission, knockout, forcing your opponent out of the ring 3 times or if your opponent is unable to continue for any reason." He paused for a moment before continuing.

"Each round is 2 minutes long with 30 second breaks inbetween. There are unlimited rounds. If at any point you are too tired to continue a fight, forfeit." He paused again as all the students mumbled between themselves in shock at how strict the rules were.

"60 of you registered here so there are 6 groups of 10 students labelled A-F. all of whom were chosen randomly. There will be 7 fights in each group, leaving 2 fighters in groups A through F.

In groups A-C, the fighters with more battles face the fighters in groups D-F with the same amount and the fighters with the least battles do the same. This will leave 6 fighters for the penultimate round of the tournament. The battle between the last 6 will be decided randomly and the final round of the tournament will consist of 3 fighters in a royal rumble. The last man or woman standing is the Victor."

He began to walk forward with his hands behind his back.

"Now that all the rules and regulations are out of the way. There's a special twist to this year's competition. With the Horizon Academy entrance examination coming up, the institution has agreed with this dojo that the winner of today's tournament will gain a special admission into the school"

At this, the students began to smile amongst themselves and the few who knew each other began tapping themselves and laughing. Rani, Yashiro and Rando all exchanged looks as they grasped the seriousness of the tournament.

Ichisuda raised his hand and the room went silent in a matter of seconds.

He continued again "I don't have to tell you how good of an opportunity this is so give it your all. The tournament begins in 15 minutes. Find out what group you are in and get prepared. Names will begin to be announced after 15 minutes so listen out"

The 60 names and their respective groups were displayed on a large screen as everyone partaking began scanning for their names.

"Group D" Rando said excitedly as he bunched his fists together. He looked over at Yashiro and Rani who were both in group f.

Rando teased, "oh, you lovebirds might end up fighting each other. That would be fun to watch"

Yashiro shook his head as Rani blushed. He didn't entertain Rando. He was getting mentally prepared for the hurdle in front of him. His tone emphasised this as he spoke.

"I'm going to get ready. You guys should do the same. Especially you Rando. Look who is in your group" he pointed to the screen and Rando turned his head sharply towards the screen.

His facial expression became more serious as he saw the last name in group D. 'Dota Amaku'.

Yashiro laughed as looked at Rani. With a welcoming smile, he said, "good luck out there". She gave him a hug and said quietly, "you too", she smiled at him as they began to walk in opposite directions, in preparation for the start of the tournament.

Yashiro sat in a corner with his legs crossed in front of him as he began observing potential opponents again. He noticed Dota stretching across the room, who was also observing the room. During his observation, a particular girl caught his attention. She was sitting as though she were meditating but as soon as Yashiro looked at her for longer than necessary, she opened her eyes and looked directly at him, with a blank expression on her face. Yashiro instantly averted his gaze and thought to himself

[she may be a problem.]

One look at Dota and Yashiro knew he felt the same. His smug look was gone and for once, he looked serious. Yashiro adjusted his position and tried to clear his mind. He closed his eyes and mediatated for the remaining minutes.

As the participants were waiting, an announcer began calling names from different groups. "Group A: Kutase Ashimi vs Seshi Saiya. Group B..."

When the announcer finished calling the names of the first group of fighters , Yashiro opened his eyes and looked around the room. No one he knew had been called yet. Neither had the mysterious girl. He kept his eye on the fight going on in group F, observing both fighters to see their patterns and seeing what side they preferred and how they fought.

Rani walked up and sat next to him. "You still avoiding me?"

Yashiro laughed and put his arm around her shoulder. "Not avoiding you, I just like to clear my head before a fight or multiple fights "

She smiled."Good, because whether you avoid me or not, if we happen to fight, you know I'll win."

"Course you will" Yashiro said, sarcastically."Are u ready for when your name is called?"

"Yeah I'm ready. Are you?"

"I am. I'm a bit unnerved though...see that girl over there to your right?"

Without a need to look, Rani replied, "the girl dressed in all black right?"

Yashiro nodded before replying, "her aura is unmatched."

"Yeah. She's clearly very dangerous"

Before they could continue, they were interrupted as one of the fighters from their group fell right in front of them, unconscious.

After a few seconds, an announcement came, "Demuro Tomore is unable to continue, Kazenaka Tayuki advances to the next round. The next fighters will be announced shortly"

Just then, another announcement came from the speakers at the group D fight. "Rando Yukumi Vs Hirase Raga.".

"Things are already getting heated", Yashiro said to Rani, as they both watched Demuro being lifted into a stretcher. Rani nodded in agreement and as she stood up, the names of the next fighters of group f were announced. "Habi Kurisu vs Sakaro Rima".

"Seeing as none of our names were called, let's go watch Rando's fight", Rani said, as she began walking towards the stage where the group D battles were happening. Yashiro got up and followed her with a smile on his face as he anticipated how Rando was going to perform during the fight.

Rando looked fairly confident as he stretched in his corner of the ring. He began to observe his opponent, who was standing still, with his arms folded. Hirase appeared to be about 6"2, covered from head to toe in muscles that intimidated most people. He had multiple scars on his face which suggested he had experienced a lot of combat. The smile on his face and the way he stood with his arms folded suggested to Rando that he believed he had won this match already.

The announcer signalled for them to get ready. Although Rando walked confidently towards the centre of the ring, he was thinking to himself [I really cannot afford to make a mistake here, if not I'll lose immediately], before he could finish his thought process, the announcer began speaking again, "fighters take your stances..."

Rando thought to himself yet again,[can I really beat him using boxing techniques alone?]

"Ready?..."

[This is not the time to think about all that. I have to stick to what I know]

"Fight!"

Without hesitation, from his corner,Hirase charged at Rando, who was slowly backing away from his opponent, with hands up guarding his face.

As Hirase quickly closed the distance, Rando let his years of training take over, relaxed his shoulders and stopped backing away.

When Hirase was close enough, he dove at Rando, with his body parallel to the ground.

He grabbed him by the back of his knees while simultaneously driving his shoulder into Rando's belly and slammed him hard onto the ground.

Rando felt the wind leaving his body as he hit the ground.

Hirase didn't give him a chance to recover and mounted him.

Rando, struggling to breathe blocked his face once again as he recieved a barrage of punches from Hirase.

After a few seconds of this, Rando figured out the intervals of each blow landing and waited for an opening.

As another blow was about to land, Rando raised his hips, making Hirase's punch miss and throwing him off balance.

Using this to his advantage, Rando pushed Hirase to the side and quickly scrambled to his feet, finally catching his breath.

Hirase charged at Rando again, he swung at Rando who ducked under the punch and countered with a straight punch to Hirase's face.

This enraged Hirase and he charged yet again. He continuously threw hooks and jabs at Rando, who was dodging with ease and once again waiting for an opening.

Rando stepped forward after another dodge and smacked Hirase hard on his chin.

This momentarily disoriented him and Rando capitalised on this.

He moved from left to right, punching Hirase as he did so, forcing him into one of the edges of the ring and making him put his guard up.

Hirase grunted and attempted to kick Rando in his chest. Rando anticipated this and twisted his body to the side, making the kick fly past him.

Using all his might, he punched Hirase square in face, causing his head to snap back like a rubberband, then followed up with a devastating uppercut.

Hirase fell off the stage, slumped to the ground and stopped moving.

After a few seconds, an announcement came "Hirase Raga is down, Rando Yukumi advances to the next round"

Rando breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as he saw Yashiro and Rani waving at him with big proud smiles on their faces.

"you were amazing up there" Rani said, as she hugged Rando.

"Thank you Rani. I didn't know you guys were watching" he replied as he bumped his fists against Yashiro's.

"Yeah, we came as soon as your name was announced" Rani said, as the trio took a seat on one of the benches.

Yashiro spoke up, "you had us in the first half there. I almost thought you were going to lose"

"So did I but I realised quickly he had no strategy in mind. He just wanted to overwhelm me with sheer brute force" Rando continued, "it would've worked to if I was not able to recieve as much damage as I did"

Before anyone could respond, an announcement came from the speakers.

"Next match in group F, Yasuke Oshime VS Yashiro Katsui"

Rani and Rando both turned to Yashiro, who already had his game face on and was walking towards his ring.