Aoshira Part 3 (Taiki)

The prep time is over. The first two fighters get ready.
“On your marks! Start!” Manami-san yells.
Chiko immediately turns into a griffin. Yuu-kun nervously turns into a Black Panther, blue lighting jetting around him.
“A Raiju. Nice.” I mumble to myself.
Chiko leaps towards Yuu-kun. With a swift motion he tackles the first year, pecks him in the neck and judo flips him. Yuu-kun lands on his back before he can even make a single move.
“Point gain Tousen 3-0!”
Yuu-kun gets up, stares at Chiko and shakes himself, lighting flying all around him. Chiko tries to doge but is hit with a huge lightning bolt; he jitters and falls to the ground, slowly turning back into his human form.
“15, 14, 13, 12, …” Manami-san counts. “…5, 4, 3, 2, 1. K.O. win for Aomori!”
Kei and Takara run to Chiko, pick him up and sit him down outside the ring. Chiko wakes up shortly after. “Did I lose?”
Takara nods. “K.O.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “That first year seems clumsy but sure has some oomph.”
“Thanks, Taiki-san. That sure makes me feel better.” Chiko says sarcastically.
Yuu-kun sits down next to Chiko and holds out a hand. “Good fight, senpai.”

While we are taking care of Chiko the next fighters are getting ready.
“On your marks! Start!” This time it´s Hyuuga-san who is the referee.
Kenta stands, in hellhound form, waiting for his opponent. His brown fur stands on end. Megumi-tan tries to get some distance. Then she turns into her Naga form, with the tail of a palm-pitviper, shimmering green and black.
Kenta bares his teeth, jumps, bites into Megumi-tans tail and swings her around until he throws her to the ground.
“Point gain Kyousuke 2-0!”
Megumi-tan coils her tail around Kentas body and punches him as much as she can.
“Point gain! Tanaka 2-3!”
Kenta bites her arm and with one fell swoop throws her out of the ring.
“Instant win Kyousuke!”
Kita and Raidon take care of Megumi-tan. Kenta comes to us, he´s clearly very happy. “I did it!”
Takara pets his head. “Good boy.”
“Well then, it´s my turn.” I stand up, stretch and make my way to the ring.

Kagami-san is now the referee.
Beni-tan seems both scarred and excited to fight me.
“On your marks! Start!”
Beni-tan jumps and makes a backflip while turning into a Naga with red, white and black striped tail, just like Leiko I think.
I´m in my hybrid form. Pointing in to the air I make gems appear, taping them makes them fly towards Beni-tan, who at first manages to doge them fairly easily but after a while of this barrage gets hit.
“Point gain Taiki 2-0!”
At first I don´t notice her tail coiling around my feet until I try to run towards her and can´t. She uses the blood from a cut I gave her to make a weapon, something resembling a baseball bat, but I don´t get enough time to actually make out that it is, she hits me on the head.
“Point gain Megumi-chan 2-1!”
After a few second I´m back in the fight, trying to end this fast and nicely, like I promised Takara, I do my gem-finger gun. Beni-tan seems to have anticipated this and makes a wall of blood appear, which she´s trying to get one of my arms caught in. I manage to get away from her. Turning into a unicorn I run towards her, my horn cuts her arm.
“Point gain Taiki 3-1!”
In a swift motion I turn, hitting her with my head, bite her jersey and pull her to the ground.
“Point gain Taiki 5-1! Point win Taiki!”
I help Beni-tan up. “You did well.”
“Thanks. Next time I´ll win.” She says and walks to her team.
Cheeky brat I think. Takara hugs me so violently, that we both fall down. “That was really cool!” She says.
Kei helps both of us up. “Ta-chan please try to not break Taicchi.” He smiles while saying that.

Manami-san starts the next fight. Jinpachi doesn´t hesitate and in full nixie form catches Katsu-kun with his tail, slams him into the floor and shoots a spray of water into his face, before Katsu-kun can even begin transforming.
“Point gain Ichinose 3-0!”
Katsu-kun gets up, turns into a phoenix and flies into the air, from there he shoots balls of fire towards Jinpachi. But the nixie uses water to extinguish the fire. Katsu-kun dives and catches hold of Jinpachi, flying higher into the air with him. Katsu-kun opens his beak and Jinpachi begins to fall, managing to create a safety net made of water to catch the fall. Jinpachi turns into his hybrid form, losing sight of Katsu-kun for a second, who while diving towards him turns into his hybrid form too, falling on top of Jinpachi and managing to get a few punches in before he´s throw back.
“Point gain Suzuki 3-3!”
Jinpachi creates little needles of water, throwing them at Katsu-kun and hits him.
“Point gain Ichinose 5-3! Point win Ichinose!”
Jinpachi smiles at Katsu-kun. “Good fight, if that had been a normal length fight I might have lost.”
Katsu-kun smiles too. “Maybe.”
Akaya-kun and Takara help Katsu-kun back to the rest of us.
“Don´t worry Katsu, next time you´ll win.” Akaya-kun tell him.
“Don´t call me by my first name and try doing better yourself.”
Ran-tan gets up, seemingly nervous.
“Don´t be nervous. This is just for training, I know you´ll do well.” I try to reassure her.
She nods. “Thank you Fujima-senpai, I´ll try my best.”

Now Hyuuga-san begins the fight.
Kita turn into a Pegasus, a shining white horse with white dove wings. All of us are stunned by her beauty, but we don´t get long to appreciate it. Ran-tan turns into a hippocampi; a black horse with the orange, white and black scales of a…
“It´s a clownfish!” Takara proclaims.
Even Kita seems perplexed, but only for a second, then she snaps out of it beginning the fight properly. She flies into the air diving towards Ran-tan, her hooves ready to hit Ran-tan, but our first year creates a wall of water catching one of Kita´s legs in it. Ran-tan´s tail comes flying, seemingly out of nowhere and hits Kita in the face. Ran-tan is still holding on to Kita when she hits her with her front hooves and slaps her with her tail again until she finally let´s go of Kita.
“Point gain Suou 3-0!”
Kita seemingly perplexed opens her wings, shaking her whole body. Some of her feathers fly into the air. She wills those feather to attack Ran-tan, who in a swift motion turns around, turning into her hybrid form. She wills the water from her wall to come flying toward Kita. The water pressure pushes her outside the ring and the fight is over.
Kita seems to not believe that she lost but starts laughing. “That was smooth Suou-chan! Nice job, do that during an official match and victory is yours.”
Ran-tan blushes. “Thank you.” She walks back to us.
Takara and I hug her. Akaya-kun pats her on the back. “That was better than Katsu.”
Katsu-kun rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”

The next to last fight is started by Kagami-san.
Haru-tan turns into a dryad. Raidon takes his Naga form. The fight turns out be rather short: Raidon catches Haru-tan with his tail and throws her. She manages to stay in the ring but while being relieved she doesn´t notice Raidon coming closer. He punches her in the stomach, she lands outside the ring and the fight is over.
Haru-tan, clearly upset makes her way back to us. “That was so mean!”
Takara tries to cheer her up. “Sometimes fights just end that fast.”

Manami-san gets ready to referee for the final fight.
Akaya-kun and Yasutomo stare at each other. Turns out this fight is a fight Hellhound vs. Nekomata. Kei begins to laugh. “So are you a cat or dog person?”
“Cat.” I say.
“Dogs are way better.” Takara answers.
Honestly the fight isn´t all that interesting. Yasutomo manages one good hit, cutting Akaya-kun´s cheek. In retaliation Akaya-kun fires a few balls of fire, managing to get five points and wins, the fight ends 5-4, for Akaya-kun.
Kei puts a band aid on Akaya-kuns cheek.
And so all fights are concluded.

After a short break we all gather around.
“Well done all of you!” Hyuuga-san says. “Would the captains like to say something too?”
“You all did really well and thank you so much for helping us. I wish you good luck in your interhigh and hope to see you at the nationals, weather that be as opponents are allies.” Takara says, bowing deeply. The rest of us bows too.
“I don´t think I have anything to add, except for, thank you for having us and allowing me to see Nana again.” Kita says the whole team bowing with her.
Before everyone leaves, Hisagi-sensei also has something to announce: “This summer during summer break, we´re going to go to Miyagi for a training camp, one more team will be joining us. I will tell you the details when the interhigh is over.”