Summer High Part 2 (Takara)

I yawn. Today´s the second day of the summer high and the first round I´m allowed to fight in. I rub my knee, please endure this, I think.
“I´m back!” Yoshi exclaims proudly, again in his self-made Kyoto-Nami T-Shirt.
I smile. “Is your mother with you today too?”
He shakes his head. “She has work, but Koto´s parents took me with them.”
Speaking of the devil; two red haired people come walking towards us. They smile at Aki-kun.
“Good luck Akito, fingers crossed.” The woman says.
“Why are they taking care of your nephew?” Taiki asks Chi-kun.
“We´re neighbors, that´s how Koto and I became friends, our parents have been friend way before we were born too.” He answers.
“Akito, you´re going to be awesome.” The man, Aki-kun´s father, puts a hand on his sons shoulder.
Aki-kun looks a bit embarrassed but also proud.
“I´ll do my best.” He says.
Another person, a beautiful brown haired woman, joins our cheering squad.
“Asuka-chan?” Manami-san asks smiling.
“I had some free time.” She says.
“That´s your fiancée?” Aka-kun asks shocked. “She´s a famous fighter!”
“I know, I told you.” Manami-san looks at his watch. “Guys get ready, fight starts in 10 minutes.” He turns to Asuka-san. “We really have to..”
“Go!” She smiles.
Aki-kun´s parents and Yoshi also start cheering.
“Good luck.” Another voice mumbles behind us, Onii-sama.

We stand nervous; our plan for this round is also to win as fast as possible.
The referee stands between us and the Usagichi team.
“Best three of five! 18 Points to win! Announcing the fighting order:
Fight 1: Fujima Taiki vs. Hashimoto Kiyoki,
Fight 2: Fujima Takara vs. Aida Yuichi,
Fight 3: Kozato Akito vs. Kato Rika,
Fight 4: Inoue Leiko vs. Morisaki Yoshito,
Fight 5: Suzuki Katsu vs. Obata Chie.
First fighters get ready.”

Taiki cracks his neck. “I´ll do this!”
His opponent is a small back haired girl with big round glasses.
“Start!”
Taiki jumps back, to gain distance.
Hashimoto changes into a dryad, slams her palms on the floor making vines appear next to Taiki. He´s grabbed by them and slammed on the floor.
“Point gain Usagichi 0-1!”
He rips the vines apart with a gem finger gun, which he swiftly points at Hashimoto. A wave of gems comes flying her way, she´s hit by a few.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 6-1!”
Hashimoto swiftly uses backflips to doge a few more of the gems. She balls her hand to a fist, runs towards Taiki and throws something his way. The floor around him is littered by small sharp plants, some of which hit him and are now stuck to him.
“Point gain Usagichi 6-6!”
He tries shaking them off but they don´t come off. Hashimoto jumps behind him and manages a few punches.
“Point gain Usagichi 6-10!”
Taiki turns around, steps in one of the spiky plants but manages to get distance again.
“Point gain Usagichi 6-11!”
Another wave of gems flies towards Hashimoto.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 11-11!”
Taiki tries to run into a different corner but is held back by vines that have grabbed his legs. He falls nose first on the ground.
“Point gain Usagichi 11-12!”
A few of the vines hit him violently.
“Point gain Usagichi 11-17!”
Taiki gets up, turns into a unicorn, ripping the vine from his leg. He charges at Hashimoto, body slams her, quickly turns back into hybrid form grabs her arm mid fall and throws her over his shoulder.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 13-17!”
He punches her and shoots another few gems at her while jumping for distance again.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 17-17!”
Taiki hits Hashimoto with another gem, but she dodges the rest, she quickly slaps him with a vine.
“Point gain Usagichi 18-18!”
Taiki grabs her by the arm and uses his gem finger gun. Two gems hit Hashimoto right in the face.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 20-18! Point win for Fujima Taiki of Kyoto-Nami, 1-0!”

He helps her back to her bench and quickly runs back to us.
“Plan win quickly semi success!” He says.
“You got hit way too often.” Kei mumbles while sitting Taiki down.
“Takara try to win too.” Taiki tells me.
I nod. “Of course!” Our plan for this and the next round is essentially try and win in only the required three fights to preserve energy for the semi finale and finale.

“Start!”
My opponent turns out to be a brown Pegasus with sparrow wings. He flies into the air letting some of his feathers fall. He controls them and they fly in an incredible speed towards me.
“Point gain Usagichi 0-7!”
I turn into my unicorn form and with my horn shoot gems at Aida.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 7-7!”
Again fathers fly towards me, I try to doge but get hit regardless.
“Point gain Usagichi 7-14!”
I shoot more gems, he tries to doge but one gem hits him in the wing, he loses balance and falls.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 15-14!”
He turns into hybrid form, runs towards me and with all of his strength pushes me onto the floor. We have a quick brawl ending in a 17-17 points draw.
I get some distance. A wave of feather flies towards me, I doge almost all of them but one; it hits my knee.
“Point gain Usagichi 17-18!”
I use Taiki´s gem finger gun technique.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 18-18!”
Aida runs towards me, still in hybrid form. I´m in pain but try to not let it show. He kicks me in the head and I land on the floor.
“Point gain Usagichi 18-19!”
We have a quick back and forth. Until I coat my fist in gems and punch Aida in face and stomach.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 24-22! Point win for Fujima Takara of Kyoto-Nami, 2-0!”

I quickly make my way to the bench, my knee bleeding.
Manami-san rips the taping off to get a better look, he mumbles something and tends to my wound.
“I hope this isn´t going to worsen.” He tells me.
“I´m not fighting next round anyway.” I say smiling.
Akito gets up. “I´ll try for another K.O.” He says.

“Start!”
His opponent turns into a beautiful purple hippocampi. She seems to be Usagichi´s ace because she gives Aki-kun some trouble, at least in the beginning.
The points are at an even 10-10 when Aki-kun, in his Raiju form; a shining red tiger, bites into her tail throws her up into the air, jumps after her and with one good kick she falls to the ground with a loud thud.
The referee gives the countdown and declares it a win for Aki-kun.

With that we made it to the third round against Umamaki, I´m a bit sad I won´t be fighting considering Umamaki is a horse based team, but my knee is more important.
Yoshi congratulates us. Aki-kun´s parents hug him.
“That wasn´t so bad, I guess.” Onii-sama says. “I´ll wait in the car.” He leaves us behind.
I smile. “We´re getting somewhere.”

On our way out Manami-san gives us the same speech as yesterday.
A group walks past us, all dressed in red, black and gold. Akaryuu.
I turn around. Just two more wins until we meet them. I know that just making it to the finale with them would get us to the nationals but I want more, I want to show them just how strong we really are. But first is the fight with Umamaki.