Let's Imagine: Caution Ahead!

We take the corner and continue through the compact space with brick walls covering both sides. The small path was damp with mud and small puddles covering our shoes entirely with dirt. The group we saw before takes a right ahead of us into another column. Yuumi sprints ahead and turns right.

She jumps back and a broader man is seen throwing a jab at her head. He then rushes into her using his elbow and slams Yuumi into the wall.

"ACK!" Yuumi has the air knocked out of her being driven into the brick surface

The stones behind her crumble as she kicks her assailant onto the floor. She jumps off the wall continues to kick him in the stomach as he lay wheezing on the floor.

"You fuckin' idiot! How dare you hit me!"

She goes in for another punt but I jump behind her and hold her by the arms.

"We don't have time for this, we gotta keep moving!" I reel her way from the man as he holds his stomach, his entire body is covered in mud and debris.

"Whatever!" Yuumi struggles out my grip and runs towards the corner. But before she makes the turn she pounces, using both of her feet, onto the already critical-conditioned male.

"GAH!" He turns over wailing in pain from his backside being stomped on.

Yuumi jumps off of him and continues down the alleyway.

Mimi runs after her as I lag behind looking at the man aching in pain.

"You… Kind of deserved it." I run past him and take the turn

At the end of the alleyway, we see an opening along with some lit lanterns.

"I think that's it! We're almost there!" Yuumi exclaims running full speed toward the exit.

A bright light eludes from the sky as we maneuver from the enclosed space. We take a left following the lanterns centered on the corner behind us.

A gaping hole is displayed in front of us ranging about 75 meters. Several cylinders move in no particular order over the pit. Large rocks shaped with large surfaces on the top but pointed exteriors underneath are spread out with no designated path. Gazing past the hole the lanterns continue on the other side.

A crowd forms at the start of the crater.

"Do they expect us to jump across?"

"I wonder how far down that goes… "

Mimi stops beside me and peers into the dark void. "L-long way down."

No kidding. Guess the rumors are true that people could die in this competition.

"Look," Yuumi points to a young male to the left of us readying to jump on a nearby rock.

"I think he's going to try and get across."

The young lad hopped from the ground and onto a rock closest to the edge. He steadies himself and continuing to hop from one to another. Each rock could hold about a foot, two were pressing it.

"Seems simple enough." I walk forward toward the gap and look for a rock to jump onto.

A member of the crowd points upwards to a transparent cylinder near the brave rock-hopper. It turns over and releases a fireball aimed directly at him. The male jumps to another rock and ducks his head. The ball crashing into another rock beside him.

He turns backs and puts up his hand in triumph. The gathering cheered and readies to follow his lead.

Suddenly, another cylinder above him turns over and a quick spark of lightning crashes onto his rock.

"AAACHH"

The man screeched in pain as he was hit by several shocks of electricity. After the third, his body lay stiff but he looked darker, as his skin hardened from the multiple attacks. His hair stood up as his mouth bubbled with spit on the sides, blood expelling from the corners of his whitened eyes. He falls lifeless into the pit with his hand still in the air.

The crowd backs away from the pit in distraught. A girl's scream can be heard somewhere in the group as they all share their tension.

My heart pounds within my chest as I grab my hand to prevent it from shaking.

Yuumi takes a step back and looks up at the cylinders. "It looks like they can only be used once."

I peer up to the cylinders that attacked and they aren't flipped over like their duplicates.

"Won't do us any good unless someone goes before us."

A glimmer of a sword catches my gaze as I see a green-haired boy jump with promptness from rock to rock. Followed behind him was an orange-haired girl along with…

"Saori?" I glance at the three making way towards the field of cylinders.

They all split up and start bouncing from rock to rock trying to avoid the rocks with cylinders above them. Saori triggers a cylinder and it turns over releasing a large shard of ice. She takes her katana out of her scabbard and throws it into the air, it dives down and sticks into a rock near the other side of the abyss. The pink-haired girl disappears from sight and reappears where her sword was thrown. She picks up the blade as she hopped from the rock and threw it once more, this time even further. The ice shard shatters into pieces on the rock she disappeared from having no one to strike.

"That's pretty handy—" I look to my left and see Yuumi jumping from rock to rock with haste.

"We can't let them show us up! Let's go!" She makes a bigger leap and breaks for two rocks per jump instead of one.

Mimi jumps onto a rock and follows her lead.

I follow closely behind her and a cylinder turns over above us.

"Watch out!" I jump to a rock that's adjacent to the one I'm on as a beam is shot from the sky.

Mimi runs forward the beam traces closer to her but she jumps into the air with her back curved, it barely grazes her blue ribbon. She falls onto a rock on all fours and begins prancing towards the finish.

The entire crowd starts to follow our lead, but still far behind us.

Saori and her team make it to the end and continue down the road covered in lit lanterns. Mimi pounces past Yuumi and jumps to the end of the hole and looks behind her. Yuumi jumps and gestures for her to continue moving.

She's right. I could catch up to them in no time—

Another cylinder turns over and shoots a fireball with great speed. I jump forward and dodge the flame as it crashes onto the rock that I'm passing.

"I don't know who's running this thing… But as soon as I find out I'm kicking their ass!"

Finally, at the edge of the abyss, I jump from one last rock to stand once again on solid ground.

Seeing Yuumi and Mimi in the distance I dash forward to catch up with my teammates.

. . .