Summer High Part 4 (Takara)

We get out of Onii-sama’s car. He seems a bit nervous.
“You know we´re fighting, right?” I ask him.
“I know but you’re this close to getting to the nationals.” He answers.
I smile. “Aw, you care about us.”
“Don´t…” He begins, sees Taiki glaring at him and says “Good luck.” Instead of whatever he wanted to say first.
We meet up with the rest of the team. Yoshi, his mother and grandparents are here. Aki-kun´s parents also came; they’re talking to their son. Haru-chan´s older brothers are also here. Manami-san is talking to his fiancée.
“Onii-sama if we make it to the finale, will you come too?” I ask him.
“I guess.” He answers and makes his way inside.
Manami-san tells us to get inside too.

We get ready; Taiki will not be fighting today his arm´s still hurting from yesterday’s fight. He looks a bit bummed out.
“We´ll win and then you can fight in the finale tomorrow!” I try to cheer him up.
I look over to the Inutoru team; a boy sits on the bench with an arm brace, he wears a black and silver choker. Next to him sits the coach, a tall young man with buzz cut. The other team members are talking to the boy with brace.

“Both schools please stand.” The referee tells us.
We stand in one line opposite to Inutoru, all members smiling at us. They´re wearing a pair of red shorts and a top in purple and brown with red writing.
“Congratulations on making it to the semifinals of the summer high!
Best three of five! 18 Points to win! Announcing the fighting order for the semifinals:
Fight 1: Nura Akaya vs. Umeda Fumio,
Fight 2: Suzuki Katsu vs. Ohkubo Kazuki,
Fight 3: Kozato Akito vs. Iwamoto Ichiro,
Fight 4: Fujima Takara vs. Kaku Miho,
Fight 5: Tousen Chiko vs. Renda Naoko.
First fighters get ready.” The referee announces.

Aka-kun takes a deep breath. “You can do this, you can do this…” He mumbles to himself.
Ken-kun puts an arm around his shoulders. “Just fight like always. Have fun!”
Aka-kun nods and turns to rest of us. “I´ll win!”

His opponent has brown hair that covers his face and he´s wearing the same black and silver choker as the boy on the bench, only he wears it on his right biceps.
He smiles at Aka-kun. Aka-kun smiles back.
“Start!”
Umeda, in hybrid form, charges at Aka-kun and punches him a few times.
“Point gain Inutoru 0-5!”
Aka-kun turns into his hellhound form and bites Umeda´s hand as he tries for another punch. Aka-kun throws Umeda onto the floor.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 2-5!”
Umeda gets up quickly and continues his punching.
“Point gain Inutoru 2-10!”
Aka-kun starts running away, literally. He runs in circles along the edge of the ring, shooting fire balls at Umeda, who seems at first amused but quickly seems annoyed. The fire balls hit him multiple times.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 10-10!” Even the referee seems confused.
Umeda now also turns into his hellhound form; a dark brown Labrador with flaming tail. He runs after Aka-kun trying to snap at him. Aka-kun continues to run his rounds until he bumps against Umeda who stopped in his tracks. A paw hits Aka-kun in the face.
“Point gain Inutoru 10-11”
Aka-kun shoots fire balls at Umeda.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 15-11!”
Umeda kicks Aka-kun in the chest with his hind legs and claws at him with a foreleg.
“Point gain Inutoru 15-13!”
Aka-kun jumps into the air and uses a backflip to turn into his hybrid form. He runs for distance, there he turns back into hellhound form and shoots a few more fire balls.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 18-13! Point win for Nura Akaya of Kyoto-Nami, 1-0!”

Umeda walks towards Aka-kun. He puts an arm around or first year’s shoulders and laughs.
They come to our bench together. “Seems like I lost! That won’t happen again though.” He says and walks back to his bench.

Kat-kun stands in front of his opponent. A short red haired boy with a scar over his nose and the same black and silver chokers just on both of his wrists.
“Start!”
The fight starts out in Kat-kun’s favor. He´s in his phoenix form and manages to hit Ohkubo with fireballs.
Ohkubo manages to punch Kat-kun a few times.
The count´s at 17-17 when it starts becoming interesting.
Kat-kun still in the air fires another wave of fire balls, hitting only once.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 18-17!”
Ohkubo finally changes forms into a massive red fox Raiju form, red lightning buzzing around him. He jumps with such speed that Kat-kun only notices the attack after he´s lying on the ground.
“Point gain Inutoru 18-18!”
Kat-kun, now in hybrid form, jumps back on his feet. He aims his finger and shots a tiny ball of fire at a still in the air Ohkubo.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 19-18!”
Ohkubo lands and again with incredible speed charges at Kat-kun scratching his side.
“Point gain Inutoru 19-19!”
Kat-kun quickly turns into his phoenix form, jumps into the air and dives clawing at Ohkubo.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 20-19!”
Ohkubo bites one of Kat-kun’s legs and slams him onto the floor.
“Point gain Inutoru 20-22! Point win for Ohkubo Kazuki of Inutoru, 1-1!”

Ohkubo happily jumps to his bench and high fives the boy with the arm brace.
Kat-kun on the other hand limps back to us. “I´m sorry.” He says dejected.
“Don´t worry, I´m up next. I´ll win for sure, you cheer for me.” Aki-kun tells him.
Kat-kun nods and sits down. Aka-kun sitting next to him trying his hardest to cheer his friend up.
“You´ll try for another K.O.?” I ask Aki-kun.
He nods. “I already have a three K.O. streak might as well make it a four K.O. streak.”

His opponent is a tall guy with brown undercut and ponytail, his bangs being held back by purple hairclips. He has a scar running down his left eye and is wearing the same choker as everyone else in his team.
“Start!”
Iwamoto turns out to be a hellhound, looking like an Australia shepherd.
At first the fight seems to be in Iwamoto´s favor he makes six points without Aki-kun even getting the chance to fight back until Aki-kun turns into his Raiju form. Reddish orange lightning buzzes around his body. He, like Ohkubo in the fight before him, uses his incredible speed to even out the points.
Then Aki-kun´s speed increases, giving Iwamoto no chance to dodge or get points, even the referee has trouble keeping up. Aki-kun hits Iwamoto on the shoulder and finally lowers the speed.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 17-6!”
Iwamoto tries shooting fire balls but Aki-kun doges them all and gains his winning point by shocking Iwamoto with his lighting. Iwamoto goes down.
“Point win for Kozato Akito of Kyoto-Nami, 2-1!”

Akito helps Inutoru´s coach with caring Iwamoto off to the bench.
The he comes happily jumping back to us.
“I didn´t get another K.O. but that was still pretty good right?” He says.
I nod. “That was incredible!”
“I didn´t see half of what you did.” Lei-chan says.
“Well I just like fighting fast.” Aki-kun says flustered.
I get up and pat the taping Manami-san put on my knee. If I win we´re in the finale.

My opponent is a girl with a high brown ponytail; she wears the choker and her left wrist and thigh.
“Start!”
She turns into her dryad form and immediately uses plants to hit me all over my, now unicorn, body.
“Point gain Inutoru 0-6!”
I shoot gems at her with my horn.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 7-6!”
Kaku wills a vine to grab one of my legs and slam me on the ground.
“Point gain Inutoru 7-7!”
I turn back into hybrid form and run towards her. Kaku seems surprised by that. I coat my fists with gems and punch as many times as possible.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 16-7!”
Kaku tries to get some distance but I grab her arm slam my knee in her stomach and headbutt her. She holds her nose and sinks to her knees.
“Point gain Kyoto-Nami 18-7! Point win for Fujima Takara of Kyoto-Nami, 3-1!” The referee turns to our bench and with a smile announces. “With that Kyoto-Nami has reached the finale of the summer high! Congratulations!”

I run to the others. Everyone is hugging someone, I hug Manami-san. “We did it!”
The boy with arm brace comes towards me, he hands me one of the chokes the whole team has been wearing. “I know that this is a weird request but could you take this with you? I´m the captain but as you can see I can´t fight with the others.” He looks nervous.
I take it; say “I get it.” And put it on. “We´ll win for you too!”
He smiles faintly. “Thank you.”

Our cheering quad and Taiki runs to us with teary eyes, even Onii-sama seems to have shed some tears of joy.
“Does anyone know who won the other semifinal?” I ask, still hugging Taiki.
“Akaryuu.” Asuka-san answers.
I look at Taiki. “We´re already qualified then!”
He nods. “But we´ll still show them how strong we´ve become, right?”
“Of course! And I still have a bone to pick with Iza-can!” I announce.
Speak of the devil the Akaryuu team walks past us.
“We´ll see about that. We will show everyone at the nationals that you only made it because of a technicality, no real skill involved.” Iza-chan says.
“Oh, yeah? If I were you I wouldn´t talk so big.” I now stand I front of her.
“And here I thought you were injured? That knee really gave in last time.” She says.
“You little... We´ll win, for our pride!” I say and go back to the others, not giving her the chance to say anything else.

I turn to the team. “We technically don´t need to win tomorrow, but I´m sure you all want to take pride in winning and qualifying for the nationals. So let´s do it!”
“Yeah!” Is the enthusiastic answer.